Imagine my chagrin. I answer a seemingly innocent question on how to implement nested loops in R and get lectured on what should and shouldn't be done in R and how to do it properly with the entire process culminating in the post below. Message received. Back to the markets, --jab > -----Original Message----- > From: tech-spec-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:tech-spec-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Tom McCubbin > Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 5:42 PM > To: tech-spec@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: [tech-spec] Re: Nested Loops > > > After rigorous battle w/ my oldest son at bedtime, I was > ready to return > to do battle w/ the infamous BBands...then, like a wise father, S. > Wisdom stepped in to smooth > the waters. I felt reduced to a sniveling school yard child, having > realized the point moot, and > my religious zealousness silly. > > But how can i lay, after a 'paul graham' shellacking? > > First, I am not a hacker. I am a professional developer. > The libraries > and tools i have > lovingly, and sometimes in obscure low level, ugly, but well > commented > assembly, C, and C++, > written underly some of the largest historic time-series data > warehouses, perf attr, risk mgmt, and > modelling / back-testing systems in place today. > > Keane has pitted me against several of the established > leaders in both > the historic data and > relational model space, and each time i have come out on top. Top in > terse memory requirements, > top for scalability, top for runtime performance by orders of > magnitudes. And of course tops > for hardware requirements. If you want i can send pretty > reports saying so. > > DMG, JPMorgan, BoA, Goldman, American Century, Fidelity, > Putnam, State > Street, Allianz, Dresdner, > the ECB, the Beaureau of Economic Analysis, Haver Analytic, > the Bank of > International Settlements > and many others all rely on my unreadable code. And soon the > FED will > be migrating their > historic dw's onto my platform as well. Why? Because, i have a clue > what i am doing in the > little space which is my world. > > I don't need Graham's rhetoric. I can find plenty of > opinions on both > sides of the fence. > > So please don't lecture me on being a programmer. I'd rather > learn from > your experience and > wisdom in the financial world. Everyone knows who you are. > I am no one. > Can you please leave me the paltry dignity of knowing my own > profession? > Or must you claim that as well? > > R is a language i have only recently begun to use. I do however have > extensive experience with > similar proprietary languages, and understand the concept space / > knowledge domain just fine. > In fact, i have spoken and taught on several occasions at > central banks, > i-banks, and the like. > > I defer to Dirk for my R lessons. Clearly, he is the resident guru. > > I defer to you for the applied finance CS lessons. And steve. And > others who i hope will excuse > my not mentioning each of their names. > > So please, lets stop the insanity, and return to you guys teaching me > something...for my own > selfish needs! > > thank you, my apologies if i have exceeded the flame limit, all due > respect, and it hurts > when you step on my toes, > > -tom > > ps - how could perl possibly still exist? > > BBands wrote: > > >>Code is not meant to be understood...that's what comments are for. > >>( you do comment your code, right ? ) > >> > >> > > > >I'll let Paul Graham reply for me: > > > >"Source code, too, should explain itself. If I could get > people to remember > >just one quote about programming, it would be the one at the > beginning of > >Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. > > > >Programs should be written for people to read, and only > incidentally for > >machines to execute. > > > >You need to have empathy not just for your users, but for > your readers. It's > >in your interest, because you'll be one of them. Many a > hacker has written a > >program only to find on returning to it six months later > that he has no idea > >how it works. I know several people who've sworn off Perl after such > >experiences." > > > >http://www.paulgraham.com > >http://www.paulgraham.com/paulgraham/hp.html > > > > --jab > > > > > > > >