sorting ascending/descending with operator.attrgetter

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:54:40 -0700, Patrick Maupin wrote:

> There is a (not very subtle) difference between saying "Oh, you meant a
> list, not a string" (especially when the context was a discussion of
> list processing), and printing a traceback for something that nobody was
> discussing, based on a single word slip.

I wondered about that. 

I almost asked whether or not you would have reacted with less anger if I 
hadn't included the tracebacks, but decided against it. I thought that, 
given how you dropped a nuke on me for what was a very trivial social 
faux pas, you would probably interpret a question about the tracebacks as 
me being condescending and go on the attack yet again.

So far you've dropped a ton of sarcasm  on me for being "the smartest, 
sharpest guy in the world", accused me of "deliberately
misinterpret[ing] everything [you] write", and declared that my work-
mates (who you don't know) take great pleasure in putting me down. Such 
repeated attacks, over something as trivial as me pointing out you 
mistook list.sort for str.sort puts your comment:

"I've left less poisonous workplaces for less cause."

into a completely different perspective. How little a slight does it take 
for you to decide a workplace is poisonous?

So, Patrick, here's how it goes:

I won't apologize for pointing out your error, no matter how trivial, 
because I thought, and still do, that it muddied the waters and risked 
adding confusion rather than clarity to somebody asking a very basic 
question. And for all I knew, you may have been genuinely confused 
yourself, and not just making a silly typo.

I will say that I regret including the tracebacks, not because there is 
anything wrong with doing so, but because they apparently caused you 
distress and I had no intention to do so. I am sorry that you took 
offense, it was not intended.

At the risk of offending you further, I will suggest that I'm not the 
only one who needs to apply some introspection here. If your skin is so 
thin that you react so explosively to such a minor slight, how are you 
going to react to some of the more vigorous disagreements?



-- 
Steven