The difference between "fool" and "looks like it's a hack job by a poor programmer" is that one critiques the actual work, and one assaults the person. Insulting or not, critiques of work improve discourse and name calling usually doesn't.
What you're failing to see is the meaning of the phrase "looks like it was written by a poor programmer". That's a comment on the code only, given that it's possible for a fantastic programmer to write code like that. It's not, however, the same as "calling someone a poor programmer".
Likewise, someone looking at an abstract painting might say "that looks like it was painted by a 5 year old", which doesn't mean they're calling the actual painter a 5 year old. It's commentary on the work.
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The difference between "fool" and "looks like it's a hack job by a poor programmer" is that one critiques the actual work, and one assaults the person. Insulting or not, critiques of work improve discourse and name calling usually doesn't.
esr calls him a fool for his position that meaning can be derived from structure.
I fail to see the difference between that and calling someone a poor programmer based on 1000 lines of prototype code.
What you're failing to see is the meaning of the phrase "looks like it was written by a poor programmer". That's a comment on the code only, given that it's possible for a fantastic programmer to write code like that. It's not, however, the same as "calling someone a poor programmer".
Likewise, someone looking at an abstract painting might say "that looks like it was painted by a 5 year old", which doesn't mean they're calling the actual painter a 5 year old. It's commentary on the work.