Re: very simple off-topic question regarding command line viewing of postscript files on macOS

[Lukas-Fabian Moser]

Hi Andrew,

> Sure this is an XY question, but the question for the OP is, in what 
> way does outputting postscript simplify your workflow? What are you 
> trying to achieve?
>
> If you look at this list and many others, people ask questions because 
> they are puzzled or stumped, and may not always ask the most pertinent 
> question, perfectly phrased and in precise context.  I think this is 
> totally forgivable. Labelling queries XY may not be the most helpful 
> response when people are just seeking answers and floundering. Go easy 
> on them. :-)

Since you wrote something similar yesterday to me:

> Yes, but support lists and forums consist of a very large percentage 
> of XY problems due to their very nature. I always ask people 'what is 
> the real question?'.
I'd like to ask for clarification: In both cases, Jean as well as I 
wrote sentences of a similar structure:

Jean: "Bottom line: this may be an XY question. Why do you want to 
generate PostScript in the first place?"
Lukas: "But your question seems sounds like an xy problem 
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem): What do you want to achieve 
exactly?"

So, neither I nor (I'm sure of that) Jean intended to use the label "XY 
question" as a way to castigate the OP. For me, it's an - admittedly 
geeky (hence the Wikipedia link) - succinct way of saying: We probably 
could give you better help if we had a fuller picture of the fundamental 
problem you want to solve. Hence the followup questions: "Why do you 
want to Generate PostScript in the first place?" resp. "What do you want 
to achieve exactly?"

Since we're both not English native speakers, there may be a problem of 
missing the appropriate tonality involved. I'm positive that Jean didn't 
mean to say "that's not a good question, go away" any more than I did. 
Was this what our responses sounded like for a native speaker?

Lukas