Re: C file recoginzed as image file

[David Kastrup]

Chris Moore <address@hidden> writes:

> Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:
>
>>     So if someone sends me a virus in image format disguised as
>>     Emacs Lisp code, the correct thing to do is to install the
>>     virus, rather than display it safely in Emacs Lisp mode?
>>
>> Although I appreciate the help you have given on other occasions,
>> that doesn't make sarcastic attacks like this one ok.
>>
>> Please do not talk to me this way again.
>
> That wasn't sarcasm, it was indicating the result of using the magic
> number in preference to the filename without warning the user.
>
> I have tried various ways of trying to explain this risk to you but
> you don't seem to understand any of them.  I thought perhaps a
> reductio ad absurdum[1] argument might help.  Apparently not.
>
> I'm sorry you don't like the form of argument I used.  Do you have a
> list of other types of logical argument you find offensive, so I can
> avoid making a similar mistake again?

That is assuming that the other person is not paying attention, and so
you try to repeat the same content with rhetoric decoration.

Even if you want to use this kind of "logical argument", it can be
done in a way that does not insinuate stupidity on the audience's
side.  Compare your version:

>>     So if someone sends me a virus in image format disguised as
>>     Emacs Lisp code, the correct thing to do is to install the
>>     virus, rather than display it safely in Emacs Lisp mode?

with, for example:

    If we did it that way and someone sent me a virus in image format
    disguised as Emacs Lisp code, the virus would be installed, when I
    would expect it to merely be displayed safely in Emacs Lisp mode.

That way you don't insinuate that the other person, when thinking
about the _same_ _complete_ _case_ as you do, would come to a bad
decision concerning _that_ case.

In short: try to make it your job to show how a particular technical
choice leads to bad results in certain cases, not to show that you
think someone else has worse judgment than you do.

Not everybody thinks of all the same things immediately.  We are not
Borg.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum