A while ago I published On What Writers Should Know But Don’t, an exchange with one Jack Herrington. My comments, which Herrington never addressed (because he couldn’t), were entirely substantive (as the reader can verify).

 

Recently, during one of my Internet searches I came across the following dialog about it at Jack Herrington’s Technical Journal, representative of the current quality of arguments in the industry, which is actually getting worse, if one can believe that is possible. None of the “discussants” bothered to address the substance of my comments. But of course: that would require knowledge, calling others names doesn’t.

 

I leave it to readers to judge who’s the ass here.

 

 

From: Jack Herrington

 

Fabian Pascal has published a private conversation with him that I had when I was interested in his opinion on an article that I was writing for DevX. I'm not quite sure what the point of publishing the conversation was.

 

 

From: BillSaysThis

 

A quick review of Pascal's site shows that he posts this kind of email exchange fairly often. He's had a political agenda regarding database technologies for many years, so this isn't surprising. Not that I completely disagree with his perspective, I don't know enough to go either way, but I recognize tilting at windmills when I see it.

 

 

From: Jack Herrington

 

I should have recognized it for what it was before I got involved. Live and learn.

 

 

From: Joey Gibson

 

Man, that Pascal guy is a real pompous ass, isn't he? His comments were bad enough in private email, but to publish it was just wrong.

 

 

Posted 02/20/04