[arachne] Re: arachne Digest V2 #39

Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!

On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 02:26:34 -0500 (EST), Arachne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 11:06:43 -0700
> Subject: [arachne] Re: arachne Digest V2 #29
> From: Bob Dohse <bobdohse@xxxxxxxx>

> Note that I said "AN excellent response to A question", not "THE perfect
> response to GREG's question". Since I don't know what specific problem
> exists on your computer/program, I am not able to claim that Michal's
> response is THE answer to your question.

On that basis ANY response could be "AN excellent response to A
question", relavence to the particular question being asked
apparently not being one of your criteria.

However, I consider that the answer SHOULD relate to the question
being asked if it is to be classed as an excellent answer, or
even good. But that's just my peculiar little ways...

> I compare Michal's answer to some past examples of "just press [fill in
> the name of a particular key] and it's right there - any dummy can figure
> it out". My email boxes were full of that type of answer (which I
> personally find unhelpful), but answers like Michal's were very rare and
> become valuable parts of my private collection.

I agree that THAT type of answer is the ultimate in condecension,
and is a real put-down for the person it is addressed to.

"Can't you see it? It right in front of your eyes."
"No, I can't because I DON'T BL**DY WELL KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR!"

> You are also questioning WHY Arachne (or DJPEG) doesn't animate graphics
> as you expected, which is a programming question that exceeds the norm of
> basic help files. While I agree that it is an interesting question for
> which an answer does exist (somewhere), I disagree that answers like
> Michal's should be rejected or criticized as inappropriate.

Well, I think it was inappropriate.

Let me refresh your memory as to the scenario. I wondered why
Arachne wasn't displaying animation for me when others had it
working alright. I re-installed Arachne and compared the
ARACHNE.CFG  files line by line and found the three items
mentioned. I could see no reason why these would have stopped the
animation so I asked what the relationship was between these and
animation of the graphics.

The answer I got did NOT address THIS question.

To me that is by definition an inappropriate answer --- it was not
appropriate to the particular question.

How do you define "inappropriate"?

Greg M.


Arachne at FreeLists
-- Arachne, The Web Browser/Suite for DOS and Linux --

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