Why is Python popular, while Lisp and Scheme aren't?

[Bengt Richter]

On Wed, 20 Nov 2002 04:15:49 GMT, "Anna" <revanna at mn.rr.com> wrote:

>On Mon, 11 Nov 2002 07:50:57 +0000, Robin Munn wrote:
>
>> Brad Hards <bhards at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
>>> I'm certainly amazed at the tolerance people have for questions that
>>> are readily answered in a number of on-line tutorials, and in both the
>>> Python books that I have (Learning Python and the Python Cookbook). In
>>> the end, the friendly attitude may be the killer feature.
>> 
>> Out of curiosity, do you think a response like: "That's covered in the
>> Python tutorial -- look at [URL]" will strike a newbie as friendly or
>> not? I ask because that's the kind of answer I will tend to write when
>> I'm in a hurry. Sometimes I will take the time to phrase the answer in
>> my own words, but often I won't want to duplicate the work that someone
>> else has already done in writing that tutorial. So if you were a newbie
>> getting a curt response like that, would you feel it was a brushoff, or
>> would you feel like your question had been answered?
>
>Okay - you asked. And since I am a newbie, I´ll answer.
>
>Before asking a question here, I´d have already read the tutorial (and
>probably 3 more tutorials and done a google search too). I wouldn´t feel
>comfortable asking here unless I had.
>
>So if I´m still here asking, it´s because I need an answer that *isn´t*
>just a reference to the tutorial, something from a live human being... So,
>yeah, I guess I would consider it a brushoff, unless you took the time to
>expand on the tutorial in some way... Personally, I´d far rather get no
>answer than ¨RTFM, silly newbie¨... cuz chances are, I already did...
>
>Just my $.03 worth.
>
Ok, several attagirls for you ;-) But as a poster asking for help,
you are playing a role in a system that includes volunteers writing docs
as well as writing code etc. If you just say you need help without giving
the system context (i.e., what you read that was insufficient or unclear) it
is like saying "my program bombed, please help." It's not near as useful
or engaging as a clear depiction of your experience. In the case of code,
the best is usually a verbatim copy/paste showing an interactive test failing.

In the case of docs, the stack trace is your report on where you looked
and where you gave up in frustration.

If there is a lack in the docs that consistently tends to confuse newbies,
that's good information. It's like a bug report wrt docs. If it's serious,
it should be fixed. You can help make things better for others that follow,
by visualizing where they are likely to have the trouble you did, and pointing
to where a road sign should be set to make their trip easier.

Help those who will follow as you would be helped by those you are following ;-)

Regards,
Bengt Richter