Abigail said:
Xiong Changnian (
[email protected]) wrote on MMMMCMLXIII September
MCMXCIII in <URL:||
|| BUT, new -- an object constructor -- is, by definition, used to make a
|| new object.
No. 'new' doesn't so by definition....
What you mean to say is that "new" is not a reserved keyword; you're
right: it's arbitrarily chosen.
An object constructor is used to make a new object and in my sample code
I have /defined/ new to be an object constructor. My method new is, by
definition, used to make a new object.
* * *
Why would anyone have a problem with this? I really don't understand why
anyone would quibble in this fashion. What's the point?
I don't subscribe to the paranoid theory of IT: circle the wagons
against vendors who wear the wrong color suits. Still, it's true that
other languages *compete* with Perl -- for time, attention, shelf space,
floor space, podium time, blog buzz, projects, and above all, money.
Competition means we need to be more *attractive* than the next language
community.
We gain nothing at all by behaving like a tank full of sharks. Some
middle manager or student comes along and tosses a bit of chum at us and
we snap viciously at it; now the blood is in the water and we snap at
one another.
Whom do we serve by this uncollegial attitude? We all like to be right
but sometimes that means we need to let other people be right, too.
I promise that nobody will get hired for a job because a manager is
browsing this group and stumbles on a post in which A roots out a subtle
inexactness in B's post. It's not likely that anyone with the power of
the checkbook will be reading this group at all but if he is, his first
thought on seeing such a post will be:
"Oh, I'm glad such a disruptive person isn't in my department, telling
his co-workers what idiots they are."
His second thought may not lie so close to the surface; he'll be slower
to make the judgement but the poison will accumulate, like mercury:
"Perl wizards are jerks; I don't want to do anything in Perl because
then I'd have to hire jerks."
Ladies, gentlemen -- think.
The one greatest service we can do one another -- the greatest honor we
can pay Larry Wall and the small army who have built Perl into such a
fine tool -- is to be civil to one another and helpful to newcomers and
outsiders.
We will not always be correct or exact and if the error is significant,
we'll do well to point it out -- politely. If it is some quibble beneath
the level of importance to someone trying to use the tool to do work, it
is probably better left unsaid. And if some lack of mutual understanding
of the English language opens a gap in our comprehension of another
poster's intent, it's almost surely better not to risk exposure for the
sake of a little ego-feeding.
Please -- I beg of you all -- let's be nice. Let's not be petty. Let's
try to be the sort of people that someone, somewhere, might actually
entrust with a task of some responsibility. Let's try to be the kind of
people who are invited to return, not those who are asked to leave.
Thank you.