[bubuga]

> It's not really ad hominem. More like constructive criticism of his rhetorical style.

No, it's a blatant ad hominem.

The guy invested his time and effort trying to improve the world by writing a technical book, which he then proceeded to give it away for free, and to this we see people like barbs replying with personal attacks accusing the author of being mentally disturbed to the point of requiring therapy.

This is a personal attack at its worst.

Perhaps the issue here is the C programming language and how teaching it can be improved, not what insults and personal attacks a random user online is able to throw at the author of a technical book.

People have more to lean from writing on undefined behavior than puerile complains regarding comments on penis sizes and ironic accusations of immaturity.

[barbs]

The term "ad hominem" is typically used to describe the fallacy of attacking the person making an argument, rather than the argument itself. Sure, I'm discussing his character, but I'm not trying to win any argument here - he may be correct in what he's saying.

> The guy invested his time and effort trying to improve the world by writing a technical book, which he then proceeded to give it away for free

And I think this is certainly laudable, especially since they seem to have helped so many people. But he also called the Rails community "pricks, morons, assholes, and arrogant fucks who didn’t care about the art or the craft." and I think he should be held accountable for that, amongst other things.

I wrote a comment about the author's behaviour in public forums and in blogs, something I think he should be held accountable for, and something which I believe hurts both him and the communities he participates in. I believe this is relevant, and I'm entitled to discuss this here.

[bubuga]

> The term "ad hominem" is typically used to describe the fallacy of attacking the person making an argument,

This is a discussion on a book on the C programming language written by someone, and here you are going full throttle on your personal vendetta against the author while saying absolutely nothing regarding the book or the programming language.

> Sure, I'm discussing his character

Precisely.

Go vent your frustrations somewhere else.

[barbs]

Please stop dictating what this discussion is about, and what people can and cannot discuss here. This is perfectly relevant.