I felt that his response was a gentle nudge to say "we expect you, as a programmer, to either read the spec or just write a test program, to get your answer." When I started out with IRC and Usenet I had to be inducted into the culture of doing due diligence and asking questions correctly, and I am better for it. I do feel that a lot of people do not respect that culture because they feel that there should be as few obstacles to new participants as possible, including very mild hurt feelings.