I can see why someone might be tempted to respond like that, but in my experience some non-native speakers come across more blunt, terse or stilted so you really should give them a mulligan.
There’s a long form version of his questions that likely wouldn’t have appeared as objectionable.
ABSOLUTELY agree
I always used to think Thomas T was being a jerk about how he’d respond to things
Then I met him and we talked (he’s a decent guy FWIW)
Turns out how HE uses english is different than how I use english
Where a native speaker might say “you should do …” he often would say “you MUST do …”
And while both are imperative they have vastly different meaning
When talking face to face though I could ask "do yea mean should " and sometimes he would say “oh yes of course” and so it was less demanding than it first sounded
So yeah I try to give non-native english speaker the benefit of the doubt (note I said TRY - I’m not always successful and sometimes catch myself forgetting that difference) But I try
That’s a common mistake us Germans make. In German we mostly use “Du must…” where English speakers say “You should…”. And the German “Du must” is much less demanding than the English “You must”. It’s a really nice example of “false friends”.
In fact, the OP question could be the preliminaries to a book.
And, this is my second flag.
The first one was because I shared a Microsoft Windows link to “How to create an Icon”, dated from August 2020 (or so), but in the text (I read it after sending the link) was talking about using Freehand by (name of the 20/30 years ago owner).
The OP says it “used a Vectorial software to create its icon as was writing somewhere” and that document says… exactly that.
Back to off topic: I received (last year I think) an off topic answer that was exactly what I needed. My question was not incorrect. The answer was. And I thanked the answer’s author. I was really happy.
BTW: thank you Markus for telling me I was flagged. I could stay many days without knowing that as I will leave home tomorrow and I do not really know when I will come back…
At last, in another Topic, in a screen shot the OP set a “Cancel / Stop” button (macOS) at the window’s right: I do not answered.
I share this problem too; I guess most of us (non-native english speakers) just use english between how we learnt it and how we use our native language.
Add to this that we’re usually not corrected by other readers, we take wrong/bad habits over time.
I’m sure I’ve derived from what I learnt in school, mixing what I read on the Internet everyday (which isn’t always correctly written) and other languages syntax. In school, we get corrected; that’s no longer the case.
I know many occurrences where what I wrote was incorrectly interpreted, but I can understand it’s not the reader’s fault.
Again incorrect. He did say that he failed in his own attempts, which (a) is a hard thing to admit, and (b) is useful information as it emphasises that the vast majority of users will NOT be successful developers able to make a living from Xojo…
But seriously, if you think only answers like “Yes, I managed to build a successful business on Xojo” are answers to the OP’s question, but not “I failed at it, it’s not as easy as it might be portrayed by some”, then you are right.
Otherwise Emile was on topic.
I think he was on topic, and I can explain WHY I think he was on topic.
Over to all those who disagree - explain your argument for him NOT being on topic?
(and no, Emile’s sometimes hard to follow way of expressing himself does not count)
That’s YOUR reading on it. If you have read several of Emile’s comments then you’d know that his grasp of English is sometimes … tentative (and sometimes it sounds as if he is on a bad trip and you wonder what he is on). Mine can be deliberately mocking, even acerbic - Emile’s can’t, at least not deliberately.
And btw, I guess you mean “the post”, not “the topic” …
And topic is non-sensical in contest. You could write “the aim” or “the thread was about” or “the topic/question was if the poster can become a professional developer with Xojo” (which Emile contributed pertinent information to).
But “The topic was answering the OP’s questions” makes no sense in English since “topic” is synonymous with “question” or “the subject under discussion”, which means you basically wrote “The question was answering the OP’s questions”.
I don’t know why you’re reposting Emile’s comment I read it on TOF And now, I’ve read it again. Still appears unhelpful. Imagine if everyone felt the urge to respond, what is in effect, “I don’t know” to peoples questions on the forum. Scrolling through 500+ variations hoping for an answer. It’s a waste of everyone’s time, including Emile’s. He had nothing to offer, no need to broadcast that fact.