Jim Allard writes:

> I think you can use your reaction to this example as a personality

> test.

Yeah, Myers-Briggs. :) :) :) Five bucks sez that over a statistically

valid sample (>500 programmers) "do"ies map to INTJs and "mean"ies map

to INTP in a statistically interesting way.

Just my observation on anecdotal data. INTPs (or for you sceptics,

those people who report "INTP" on the MBTI and related questionaires)

seem to be much more comfortable with LISP (well, Scheme -- I took

6.001). I, an INTJ, felt when dealing with Scheme as if (by

description) I were on a very, very, very bad acid trip.

(Of course, other Types code, but I haven't decided how they would

work out. My guess is it's a simple J/P thing.)

(Note, however, I don't do C, either. I understand that I would love

Java, and should go learn it, but haven't yet.)

> If you love the clean simplicity of the C answer, then you're a

> "do"ie. If you can't stomach an environment without the guarantees in the

> Common Lisp answer, then you're a "mean"ie.

That would make me a "do"ie, I guess. It looks from here like your

dichotomy is between

(1, meanie) Programmers who want a language that does the right thing,

thereby that they may trust that clearly, properly articulated

expressions in that language will function as they desire,

and

(2, doie) Programmers who want the language to let them do the right

thing, and not get in their way as they go about it their own

idiocyncratic way.

Alexander Pope once wrote of the craft of poetry, "Tis not enough no

harshness give offense// the sound must seem an echo to the sense."

IIRC, e.e.cummings replied "Take care of the sounds and the sense will

follow."

The meanies sound like they are in cummings camp, taking care of the

sounds, so the sense will follow; I'm a follower of Pope, bending the

sounds to the purpose of my sense.

Or another way: I see meanies as gardeners or arborists: they tend

their language, and it bears fruit. I see myself as a doie as a

mechanic: I see programs as machines to be built and tuned, and to be

pushed to their limits.

(And I am learning Tcl *why*? >sigh<)

-- Vanessa Layne

goliard@weasel.terc.edu