[OS X TeX] New Macros, new Engines, new TeXShop versions, and all that

[Alain Schremmer]

On Feb 24, 2010, at 1:38 PM, Gerrit Glabbart wrote:

>
>
> 2010/2/24 Alan Munn <amunn at gmx.com>
>
> As the person who made the (I hope polite) plea for top posting, I  
> agree with both of these sentiments, which is why I won't pursue  
> any debate with people who do otherwise. The value of the list is  
> definitely diminished if we try to enforce this sort of behaviour  
> by citing the "rules" etc. which will piss people off.
>
> And as the person who literally cited (part of) the "rules" (such  
> as they are) -- it was not my intention to try to enforce anything;  
> my point was that a) this discussion about the merits of top- 
> posting has occurred once or twice before,

as I am afraid it is bound to continue occurring, one hopes still  
once in a while.

> and that b) the "rules", informed by those prior discussions, are  
> actually quite flexible and pragmatic, advocating that the message  
> be readable above all else.

And this last is the way it ought to be and, to an extremely large  
extent, of which I am exceedingly glad, is the way it happens to be  
on this list.

I would also suggest that quality has its privileges: If, say, Koch  
were to "scatter post", and even if I were to find his posts very  
difficult to read, I certainly would not think of saying anything if  
only because I would be busy trying to figure out what he is saying,  
knowing full well that I better not miss whatever he is willing to  
say. (Disclosure: Once in a while, he lets me download a copy of  
TeXShop for FREE.)

Grothendieck is said to have once started a talk with "Take a prime  
number, for instance 57, ..." and I understand that nobody said boo.  
Had someone like myself started a talk that way, s/he probably would   
have been booed, if not booted, right out of the hall and probably  
rightfully so.

Regards
--schremmer