Re: Profanity in the Linux Kernel?!?!?

David (david@kalifornia.com)
Thu, 10 Jun 1999 19:10:37 -0700


"Michael B. Trausch" wrote:

> Hm. Which would you rather have in YOUR kernel?
>
> "Fatal Exception 0E at address 349f930d:020a34ff"
>
> Or
>
> "Something fucked up. This shouldn't happen."
> "oops 00"
>
> Well, they may be unprofessional, however, they are very concise, and well
> understood among all of us humans, no?

so...what really broke? something happened that shouldn't have happened and
it's happening is an expletive. not very concise, descriptive, or well
understood.

the fatal exception line explains a whole lot more than yours, and by your
words, is more concise and understood.

"something f*cked up" what exactly was it and how exactly did it break?

"this shouldn't happen" really, when should bugs happen and is it necessary
for my computer to tell me this opinion?

"oops 00" hmm, very well understood. oops 00.

on the other hand;

"fatal exception 0e" a fatal processor exception was trapped. the exception
code is 0x0e

"at address nnnn" this describes where it happened.

does your car's dashboard light up with "i'm f*cked up" when something
happens? probably not, you wouldn't know if you needed gas or your oil
pressure is zed.

quite truely that morality has degenerated and become the minority. so be it
that Linus chooses to allow the kernel source to have this language. because
you are irreverent doesn't mean others don't walk away with a bad taste. if
you want filth in your code, then go for it. there -are- a lot of religious
and moral people that read kernel source. adding filthy language to the
kernel doesn't enhance it's performance or increase it's effectiveness in any
form. it simply amuses or offends some of us.

as to world domination which is something Linus looks to, i can't always
bring something in to a client that has filthy language in it. i'll defer to
a 2nd rate OS rather than present something that is offensive to them. sure
it's nice to boost your ego and feel a bit more swarthy by coloring your
language but it generally indicates you couldn't think of something better to
say so you resorted to expletives. most teenagers feel the need to bolster
their impressions with colored words, some grow out of it. this is a
generality, not a personal attack. one generally doesn't include such
language in their resume when trying to sell themselves to a prospective
employer or client.

personally, i could do without the expletives in the source and i tend to
patch them out. that's my choice and i'm not imposing it on you. i don't
feel it's proper to have such in the public kernel source but it isn't my
choice. i don't appreciate the coloring and if there was another OS like
linux without the filthy language, i'd advocate it.

-d

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