Re: Idempotence and "Replication Insensitivity" are equivalent ?

"Phil Carmody" <thefatphil_demunged_at_yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message news:874puwjsvk.fsf_at_nonospaz.fatphil.org...

> My goodness, is c.d.t really this polite?

There was a period of time when Marshall's standard of politeness was the norm for c.d.t. This lasted for about a year and a half. There were occasional trolls and more frequently cranks visiting the place. And the vast majority of people who have been programming for a long time, but know little or nothing about database design, tend to enter this group thinking that database theory is completely vacuous. But within that context, we were able to maintain a modicum of decorum.

Then we were revisited by a regular who had been away for a while, and who is pretty free with the insults. He could, and can, back up his insults with pretty sound arguments, and usually gives at least one low key response before turning up the flames. If that one participant, and others with similar background, were the only ones insulting people we would be able to pretty much stuggle along.

Unfortunately, the presence of such insulting behaviour sparks imitation by others who enjoy flinging feces as much as howler monkeys do, and also know as much about databases as howler monkeys do. That's the state of affairs that you walked into. Received on Mon Sep 25 2006 - 07:49:37 CDT