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mention of books & extensions welcome, or...? (was Re: Scripting *of* Python)

Alex Martelli aleax at aleax.it
Sat Feb 1 05:58:01 EST 2003 
On Saturday 01 February 2003 11:46 am, holger krekel wrote:
  ...
> Please understand that i just said
>
>     Anyway, I'd have prefered if you reacted to Nick instead
>     of pushing the case to all of "comp.lang.python" for judgement.
>
> in my initial post.  Does this imply "private reply" to you?

Yes, that's how I read it: a preference for a private reply
rather than a public post to the group.  From your question
I infer that's not what you _meant_ (you apparently meant
to express preferences about the _contents_ of my post
rather than its _destination_ with those uses of "to"), but
I'll admit that, even with this extra guidance, I still have some
trouble reading this sentence of yours in the way it now seems
you intended it.


> A lot of people (including me) appreciate your postings
> and your rhetorics.  But i think all those powerful
> c.l.py "Bots" should be programmed to be a bit more
> careful with mere humans, sometimes.

Humans, in turn, might make our lives easier by writing
a bit more carefully, so that our underpowered parsers
don't get SO confused (particularly by the pragmatics --
syntax and semantics are OK, but pragmatics are just
too tricky for us mere 'bots).  Simply phrasing your above
quoted phrase as, e.g., "I'd have preferred it if you had
posted addressing Nick directly, rather than asking all of 
c.l.py for judgment" might have produced a shorter thread
(although one ending with just-as-deep disagreement)
by at least avoiding the private/public misunderstanding.


Alex
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