Re: the zen of SIGPIPE

[Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

>> Now consider the inexcusable example of xargs(1).

> I stopped reading as soon as I saw that text.

> If you want to argue that it's wrong, then make an argument that does
> not assume the conclusion that you want to reach.

If you wish to censure jklowden for question-begging, you probably
should first read the argument to make sure that is actually what's
going on.

I don't think this was an instance of question-begging.  Rather, it was
an instance of stating - with a relatively common bit of rhetoric - one
of the premises of the argument: that the way xargs behaves is wrong.
Indeed, there isn't much argument in the logician's sense; it seems to
me that most of jklowden's post was stating an opinion that certain
behaviours are wrong.  The closest thing to an `argument' I saw was the
leap from "this behaviour is wrong" to "this behaviour should be
changed", which isn't a very large leap.

(Also, I got lazy, elsewhere in this thread, and got tripped up by it;
the quote I attributed to Pope is actually from Emerson.)

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