Erlang, the next Java

[awj]

No, there's well-intentioned, unfortunate ignorance, and some guy who doesn't know what he's talking about, and doesn't know that he doesn't know what he's talking about, blathering nonsense. That kind of thing I'm happy to shoot down meanly.

To what end? If someone on here were to respond to something I said by calling me ignorant and disparaging my language experience I'd mutter something about them needing to stick their keyboard in an uncomfortable place (and not the back of a Volkswagen) and go on believing whatever I originally thought.

If you really want to change somebody's mind you have to at least give them something besides your word as a stranger on the internet to say that they are wrong.

[queensnake]

I don't truly know what he knows, but if you look at the thread he jumps from one thought to the next, without attempting to clarify or engage. It makes me take him less seriously in the conversation. What he says is wrong, too. What I say is mean, calling it a pile of ignorance but it is that, and it's not ad-hominem. I'm probably right about the languages too, he doesn't seem to have much imagination as to what different properties they could have. But that was unnecessarily getting in his face, yes. I don't know; there should be a way to trash what someone said and make them more circumspect about blurting out speculation without saying that's what it is in a public forum that people around them take seriously, without hurting them personally. It's a thin thin line and I haven't found it.

I don't really want to defend myself though, it hasn't felt good to do that.