When somebody directs "derogatory" remarks at themselves, it's called "self-deprecating". It's a good thing in many Western cultures at least, and demonstrates a degree of modesty. In this case, hp made it clear that he doesn't expect sympathy (or applause or whatever) for having written a lot of C. It's just something he mentioned because he thought it was relevant.
It is relevant - people not long out of school and talking at length about everything that's wrong with XYZ are tedious both to experts and experienced people generally. hp's comments on C use experience, clear reasoning, and absolutely no personal commentary whatsoever. This contrasts with the negative, personal and poorly reasoned attacks of people such as you.
I hope for your sake that you're asserting someone is "extremely" petty based on a mere self-deprecating aside because you're only a few years out of school and haven't learnt to communicate yet, and not just an old hand trapped an inability to relate to people with different opinions or role models. The world can always do with more talent and fewer martyrs.
"When somebody directs 'derogatory' remarks at themselves, it's called 'self-deprecating'... In this case, hp made it clear that he doesn't expect sympathy (or applause or whatever) for having written a lot of C. It's just something he mentioned because he thought it was relevant."
This isn't the only possible interpretation of that comment. Sometimes words can have more than one meaning, and misinterpretation isn't always a sign of idiocy or acting in bad faith
Also, when you say, "This contrasts with the negative, personal and poorly reasoned attacks of people such as you," do you mean, "I hope for your sake that ... you're only a few years out of school and haven't learnt to communicate yet, and not just an old hand trapped an inability to relate to people with different opinions or role models"?
"This isn't the only possible interpretation of that comment"
Genuine curiosity... what other interpretation could there be? Is it an ESL issue with literal translation causing offense? Or is there another interpretation in a non North American culture?
In N.A. at least, this is an extremely common expression.
By "that comment", I meant hp's original comment, which was a long tangent on how to go about teaching C, in the context of a post about a draft of a book teaching C. The piece that X-Istence isolated contributes to the interpretation that the comment was a criticism of Shaw, and not just a long tangent. It can be read as setting a confrontational tone.
I don't understand why other commenters feel it was unreasonable of Shaw to interpret it as a criticism.
I think it's been on the order of a year since I last heard this particular violin phrase. It might be common in your community, but that's not exactly North America, yeah?
I don't understand why other commenters feel it was
unreasonable of Shaw to interpret it as a criticism.
To speak for myself: because the other interpretation makes much more sense, if you take into account that people are generally trying to be nice and helpful.
I was reading that comment, thought "hmmm, that criticism sounds a bit premature and more based on what others have written than on what Zed is writing... oh wait, that's because he isn't saying anything about Zed's writing at all. Yeah, now it makes perfect sense."
So admittedly, you get confused for a moment, but then there's a perfectly obvious solution: he's not commenting on the linked article, but is offering advice in the form of criticism on what generally goes wrong with these projects. If you don't see that solution and don't go for that interpretation, I think it means you fail to consider the option that someone is just being clumsy at being helpful. So it's another instance of Hanlon's razor: don't attribute to malice what could equally well be explained by stupidity (which is of course much too strong a term for an awkwardly phrased anwer).
BTW, it's not right that your comments are being downvoted.
It is relevant - people not long out of school and talking at length about everything that's wrong with XYZ are tedious both to experts and experienced people generally. hp's comments on C use experience, clear reasoning, and absolutely no personal commentary whatsoever. This contrasts with the negative, personal and poorly reasoned attacks of people such as you.
I hope for your sake that you're asserting someone is "extremely" petty based on a mere self-deprecating aside because you're only a few years out of school and haven't learnt to communicate yet, and not just an old hand trapped an inability to relate to people with different opinions or role models. The world can always do with more talent and fewer martyrs.