I linked to the post itself because more than one of the comments were about using “rational” in the titles of posts, and I also thought the content of the post was relevant to understanding that discussion.
Labeling it off topic was an overreaction on my part. It was clear to me that you were talking about the comments.
Nonetheless, it seems kind of silly (in an insulting and childish way) for someone to portray the topic “most rational programming language” as essentially equal with “rational wart removal”, which is the most parsimonious interpretation of your comment, and which I must therefore rebut since you did not bother to clarify.
There are multiple levels on which programming languages can be rational—they can teach rationality skills, they can help you make money for rational causes, and so forth. Wart removal is far more specific and a much more clear-cut case of dilution of the term.
I have substituted “best” in the title in the interests of preventing dilution, but this still seems to me to be a step above and beyond what I am required by linguistic politeness and the demands of clarity to take—programming and rationality really are related in ways beyond the superficial “rational = best” kind of way.
That’s the kindest interpretation you could think of? I’m a bit bothered that I have to specify I wasn’t trying to be a dick in this specific situation. No, I wasn’t trying to be mean to you. It looked like you wanted to see situations similar to yours, so I showed you the first one to came to mind (which of course was the most extreme one), and I assumed you wouldn’t think I was implying they were equal.
I linked to the post itself because more than one of the comments were about using “rational” in the titles of posts, and I also thought the content of the post was relevant to understanding that discussion.
Labeling it off topic was an overreaction on my part. It was clear to me that you were talking about the comments.
Nonetheless, it seems kind of silly (in an insulting and childish way) for someone to portray the topic “most rational programming language” as essentially equal with “rational wart removal”, which is the most parsimonious interpretation of your comment, and which I must therefore rebut since you did not bother to clarify.
There are multiple levels on which programming languages can be rational—they can teach rationality skills, they can help you make money for rational causes, and so forth. Wart removal is far more specific and a much more clear-cut case of dilution of the term.
I have substituted “best” in the title in the interests of preventing dilution, but this still seems to me to be a step above and beyond what I am required by linguistic politeness and the demands of clarity to take—programming and rationality really are related in ways beyond the superficial “rational = best” kind of way.
That’s the kindest interpretation you could think of? I’m a bit bothered that I have to specify I wasn’t trying to be a dick in this specific situation. No, I wasn’t trying to be mean to you. It looked like you wanted to see situations similar to yours, so I showed you the first one to came to mind (which of course was the most extreme one), and I assumed you wouldn’t think I was implying they were equal.