OT: Please and thank you

A

Adrienne Boswell

As some of the regulars know, I have a son, Spane, who is now seven. I
am in the middle of coding a big server side project. At one point
today, he asked me what I was doing, and I told him that I was writing
stuff to make the computer (browser) do what I wanted it to do - and I
continued on.

We try to be a polite family, so we always try to say our "please &
thanks you"'s.

So, just two minutes ago, my wonderful son, Spane, walked up and asked
me, "Mommy, why don't you tell the computer "Please"?"

I'm thinking that I should start doing that when I get into something
that's not working server side.

Just had to share.thank you (Spane just typed that "thank you" in)
 
R

Richard Wakeford

We try to be a polite family, so we always try to say our "please &
thanks you"'s.

I was brought up that way and continued with my children too. When done
with a smile as well, it makes things even better. Far too many people have
forgotten the use and the effect of those two simple words. Lovely to read
your little anecdote. Thanks.
 
A

Adrienne Boswell

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed (e-mail address removed) (Arthur
Shapiro) writing in
I think that's horribly naive!

Everyone who's been in the industry for any length of time knows that
computers respond best to language that would make the proverbial
sailor blush. Ya' don't "please" or "thank you" them.

While I personally try to be a polite individual, computers generally
receive the harshest invective imaginable.

Art

Yes, you see, I have been threating to throw my computer over the
nearest overpass, perhaps I _should_ say please.

I once worked on an ancient 486 PC computer that would only turn on if
you sang the "Laverne and Shirley" song to it. All other songs failed
including Daisy.
 
A

Arthur Shapiro

I'm thinking that I should start doing that when I get into something
that's not working server side.
I think that's horribly naive!

Everyone who's been in the industry for any length of time knows that
computers respond best to language that would make the proverbial sailor
blush. Ya' don't "please" or "thank you" them.

While I personally try to be a polite individual, computers generally receive
the harshest invective imaginable.

Art
 
T

Tim Streater

I think that's horribly naive!

Everyone who's been in the industry for any length of time knows that
computers respond best to language that would make the proverbial sailor
blush. Ya' don't "please" or "thank you" them.

While I personally try to be a polite individual, computers generally receive
the harshest invective imaginable.

That's your punishment for using a Windows machine.
 
H

Helpful person

As some of the regulars know, I have a son, Spane, who is now seven.  I
am in the middle of coding a big server side project.  At one point
today, he asked me what I was doing, and I told him that I was writing
stuff to make the computer (browser) do what I wanted it to do - and I
continued on.

We try to be a polite family, so we always try to say our "please &
thanks you"'s.

So, just two minutes ago, my wonderful son, Spane, walked up and asked
me, "Mommy, why don't you tell the computer "Please"?"

I'm thinking that I should start doing that when I get into something
that's not working server side.

Just had to share.thank  you (Spane just typed that "thank  you" in)

I'm sorry, but I usually threaten to kick the computer in the disk
pack!

http://www.richardfisher.com
 
J

Jukka K. Korpela

Thomas said:
This reminds me of INTERCAL, a programming language which actually
requires you to say "please" to the computer now and then:

An interesting idea... Programming languages might well have "please"
instead of the brutal "do" in e.g.
do { ... } while(...)
or
for i := 0 to n do ...
But modern programming languages tend to omit the verb entirely, using ugly
birds like "{" and "}" for grouping.

In descriptive markup languages, like HTML, it's a bit more difficult to
find use for words like "please", as the element and attribute names are
supposed to describe properties and relationships, rather than act as
commands, wishes, or suggestions.

But we might at least enhance the HTML syntax by a new element, normally
placed at the end of the body, e.g.
....
<thanks type="sincere">Thank you for processing this messy and sloppily
written document!</thanks>
</body>
</html>

This element would normally be invisible to users but could be used by user
agents e.g. to decide whether to display or index the document at all,
possibly depending on the content of <excuse> and <apology> elements.

I guess there are still a few days left in this month to formulate a formal
proposal e.g. to the W3C or the WHATWG on this.
 
A

Adrienne Boswell

But we might at least enhance the HTML syntax by a new element,
normally placed at the end of the body, e.g.
...
<thanks type="sincere">Thank you for processing this messy and
sloppily written document!</thanks>
</body>
</html>

This element would normally be invisible to users but could be used by
user agents e.g. to decide whether to display or index the document at
all, possibly depending on the content of <excuse> and <apology>
elements.

Thank you so much, Yucca. What a wonderful thing to wake up to at 6:22am
- I almost woke everyone in the house up, I was laughing so hard.
 

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