Re: do { quit; } else { }

Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> writes:

On 09/05/2025 15:25, Bonita Montero wrote:
>

Am 10.04.2025 um 00:07 schrieb Tim Rentsch:
>

When someone is responding to a post, they are responding ONLY to
the content in the posting they are responing to;  not to some
earlier posting in the same thread, not to a different posting
submitted two weeks ago, not to what you meant to say but didn't,
not to thoughts in your head but that you didn't say, but ONLY TO
WHAT IS SAID IN THE POSTING BEING RESPONDED TO.
>
If you can learn to follow this simple rule everyone in the
newsgroup will be better off, including you.

>
You're constantly overwhelmed by what people write here.  Both in
terms of content and the nature of the discussion.  Don't try to
constantly set rules;  that seems petty.

>
Tim's not setting a draconian rule in stone.  He's presenting a
perfectly sensible rule of thumb that is based on his decades of
experience of posting to this group.  Usenet works best when you snip
the bits you're not replying to, and reply only within the context you
have retained.  Nearly all the leading experts in this group nearly
always observe this rule of thumb, because it's simple common sense so
to do.

Note that my remarks did not direct anyone to do anything.  The
first paragraph gives an observation -- which I think agrees with
the behavior of most posters in most cases -- about how responders
actually act.  The second paragraph gives a statement of opinion
(or perhaps a prediction, depending on how the paragraph is
interpreted) about what will happen if someone adopts the view
explained in the first paragraph.  There was no attempt to set
rules.

On what basis do you justify laying down your law for Tim to follow?

I see no reason to care what Bonita Montero thinks.  ISTM that the
most common reaction among other responders is to say postings not
topical to comp.lang.c should be posted elsewhere.  So I don't
think there is much danger of my reaction being in the minority.