Hacker News Reader

Comment by sutro | Hacker News Reader

Look at the surrounding website. What is being sold by Object Mentor? Training, consulting, books, advice. Not software.

View on HN

True. That is why they boast on their TDD advice all the time...that developers should TDD this and that. And what happens if the project failed? Ah, the developers didn't implement TDD correctly. Period.

TDD != Software

How could anyone upmod that? It's pure ad hominem.

No it's not. It's an instance of "cui bono", and skepticism about credentials.

How is it not ad hominem? It's telling facts about the speaker to put down the content.

Regarding credentials, we are judging the content on its merits, not deferring to Uncle Bob's authority.

The comment can be read as "you're just saying that because you sell training, consulting, books, and advice, not software." Which absolutely has nothing constructive or destructive to say about the merits of Uncle Bob's argument. Looks like an ad hominem to me.

Let's say we are arguing about the color of Mount Everest. Joe says it's blue and Mike says it's white. Would it be relevant to the debate if Joe had never in fact seen Mount Everest?

In the same way, software advice that doesn't take the form of deductive argument from mutually agreed-upon principles is largely valuable insofar as the person peddling it is experienced and honest.

What if the training and consulting he offers really benefits his clients?

Then he's probably got a valuable perspective.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com