Hi Roy, Thank you, I’m sorry — I couldn’t resist fitting in a little dig there because that’s one of my main frustrations with actually using R, and to me it seemed to make some sort of sense because I was complaining about backwardness in a way (so a steep learning curve seemed to fit in). The error messages are so cryptic that I wonder how anyone ever used R before Google (e.g. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27350636/r-argument-is-of-length-zero-in-if-statement).
I’m a bit appalled 50% of the responses think correctness and not being a jerk to some fraction of people is a bad thing and trigger warnings have been brought up (in a funny way). I should have done my research and noticed —quiet is indeed an existing option, though. If I had an R-related wish, it would be that “—slave” becomes “-Q” in the documentation and is silently maintained for compatibility. My original post came out of watching “12 Years A Slave” and if you haven’t, I recommend it. The powerlessness and ultra-grating injustice and the irony of slavery being easily justified by the Bible while abolition is not is an experience. Thanks, Ben P.S. Do any R developers actually read this? > On 19 Sep 2019, at 22:12, Roy Mendelssohn - NOAA Federal > <roy.mendelss...@noaa.gov> wrote: > > Hi Ben: > > Without commenting one way or another on your point, your initial post > seemed a lot like trolling because of: > >> Let me reiterate that it is 2019, i.e. "The Future", rather than 1970 when >> R was presumably developed, based on its atrocious syntax, documentation >> and usability (I think I only need to say "NaN", "NULL", and "NA"). >> > > You are certainly welcome to your opinions about R, but these comments are > totally aside from what I assume is your main point, and because of this my > first reaction was don't feed the trolls. > > My $0.02. > > -Roy > >> On Sep 19, 2019, at 2:51 AM, Benjamin Lang <lang...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Dear Richard, >> >> Thank you, that’s interesting. There is also something called an >> “etymological fallacy”. I think current usage is more useful here than the >> “science of truth”, i.e. the Ancient Greek idea that the (sometimes >> inferred) derivation of a word allows us to grasp “the truth of it”. >> >> In current usage, a “server” is someone who brings you dishes in a >> restaurant. A “client” is a customer. A “slave” is a human being forced to >> perform work under duress and considered nothing more than a machine, say a >> dishwasher or a tractor. And in some regions, this echoes on and is >> offensive and hurtful to some. >> >> A new user, wanting to reduce output from R, would probably reach for “-q” >> or “—quiet”. This makes sense in the same way that “—stentorian” is not a >> good alternative to “—verbose”. >> >> Best, >> Ben >> >>> On 19 Sep 2019, at 10:55, Richard O'Keefe <rao...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> One of my grandfathers was from Croatia. Guess what the word "slave" is >>> derived >>> from? That's right, Slavs. This goes back to the 9th century. And then >>> of course >>> my grandfather's people were enslaved by the Ottoman empire, which was only >>> defeated >>> a little over a hundred years ago. My other grandfather was from the >>> British isles, >>> where to this day followers of the same prophet are enslaving people like me >>> (except for being female). So I'm sorry, but I'm not impressed. >>> >>> How many computers are "servers"? There's that whole client-server thing. >>> Guess what "server" comes from? That's right, the Latin word "servus", >>> which >>> means guess what? You got it again: "slave". Are we to abolish the word >>> "server"? What about the word "client"? Ah, that's part of the >>> client-patron >>> system from Rome, so what about the patriarchy, eh? >>> >>> We are dealing with something called "the genetic fallacy". >>> "The genetic fallacy (also known as the fallacy of origins ...) >>> is a fallacy of irrelevance that is based solely on someone's >>> or something's history, origin, or source rather than its >>> current meaning or context." (Wikipedia.) >>> >>> Context matters. >>> >>> >>> >>>>> On Thu, 19 Sep 2019 at 17:10, Abby Spurdle <spurdl...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> Personally I much prefer backwards compatibility to political correctness. >>>> >>>> I agree with Rolf, here. >>>> And as someone that's planning to write a Linux Terminal Emulator, in >>>> the medium-term future, I *strongly* defend this approach. >>>> >>>> And to the original poster. >>>> Haven't you seen The Matrix? >>>> (Second best movie ever, after the Shawshank Redemption). >>>> >>>> I would prefer the technology to be my slave, than I be a >>>> prisoner/slave to the technology. >>>> >>>> ______________________________________________ >>>> R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see >>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide >>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >> >> [[alternative HTML version deleted]] >> >> ______________________________________________ >> R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > ********************** > "The contents of this message do not reflect any position of the U.S. > Government or NOAA." > ********************** > Roy Mendelssohn > Supervisory Operations Research Analyst > NOAA/NMFS > Environmental Research Division > Southwest Fisheries Science Center > ***Note new street address*** > 110 McAllister Way > Santa Cruz, CA 95060 > Phone: (831)-420-3666 > Fax: (831) 420-3980 > e-mail: roy.mendelss...@noaa.gov www: https://www.pfeg.noaa.gov/ > > "Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill." > "From those who have been given much, much will be expected" > "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" -MLK Jr. > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
