Google Not Universal Panacea [was: Re: Where to find python c-sources]

[Steve Holden]

Tor Erik Sønvisen wrote:
> "Erik Max Francis" <max at alcyone.com> wrote in message 
> news:Ab6dnZLcB8e2zqHeRVn-hw at speakeasy.net...
> 
>>Tor Erik Sønvisen wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I need to browse the socket-module source-code. I believe it's contained 
>>>in the file socketmodule.c, but I can't locate this file... Where should 
>>>I look?
>>
>>The source tarball, available on python.org.  Are people really too lazy 
>>to do elementary research on Google?
>>
>>-- 
>>Erik Max Francis && max at alcyone.com && http://www.alcyone.com/max/
>>San Jose, CA, USA && 37 20 N 121 53 W && AIM erikmaxfrancis
>>  The people are to be taken in very small doses.
>>  -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
> 
> 
> Thanks for the answers... And yes, I have searched google! 
> 
> 
> 
As Pythonistas we can all marvel at the utility of Python, possibly 
best-known for its many applications at Google. However, I've noticed an 
increasing number of replies (quite possibly including some from me, so 
I'm not being holier-than-thou in this respect) of the "sheesh, can't 
people use Google?" type lately.

However,

 >> Are people really too lazy to do elementary research on Google?

goes a bit too far in imputing motives to the enquirer and overlooking 
the fact that there are some very good reasons for *not* using Google.

Since Google and the Python Software Foundation have a relationship 
(Google are a sponsor member of the Foundation, were one of the sponsors 
of PyCon DC 2005 and employ some Foundation Board members) and since I 
am a Board member of the Foundation (there, full disclosure), I hesitate 
to suggest that Googling can't fulfil every individual's every needs, 
but the bald fact is it's true. [Thinks: if Google stock tanks today I'm 
in deep doo-doo here].

Technical people like to pretend there's only technology. The fact that 
this is demonstrably not true doesn't appear to condition their 
behaviour very much, and on newsgroups, a bastion of testosterone from 
the very early days of internetworking (due to network news' tight 
interlinking with the dial-up UUCP network that used mainly local calls 
to propagate news and mail), the position is at its worst. Note that 
we're talking male hormones here, since by and large women don't appear 
to have embraced the Python community (except perhaps individually, but 
that's no business of mine).

While a snappish "go and look it up on Google" might suffice for a 
mouthy apprentice who's just asked their thirteenth question in the last 
half hour, it's (shall we say) a little on the brusque side for someone 
who only appears on the group last February, and has a history of asking 
reasonably pertinent though sometimes beginner-level questions.

In the real world there are many reasons why people interact, and 
interactions on c.l.py reflect this diversity. Sometimes it's just (as 
Americans say) "gathering round the water cooler": it's good to be in 
touch with a number of other people who have the same technical interest 
as you, and sometimes you get to say "well done" or interject your own 
opinion.

Other people come here for a sense of affirmation ("I wonder if those 
Python guys will treat me like a leper if I post on c.l.py?"), amusement 
("I wonder what the quote of the week'll be on the python-url"), 
intelligence (I wonder if the Twisted guys have produces a new version 
of X recently") and even identity ("I'll argue about everything I can 
possibly find the minutest hole in so people know that I have a brain 
and can use it").

Also, many regular readers didn't grow up speaking English (I was 
tempted to omit those last two words and leave it at that, but I won;'t 
be quite so extreme today), and so they may not phrase their questions 
appropriately. For all I know, there may not be that much Google content 
in Norwegian.

In short, this group is a broad church, and those readers with brain s 
the size of planets should remember that they are just as much in a 
minority as the readers who appear on the list for the first time this 
week. The vast majority are here to learn and grow, and I think that's 
the sort of behaviour we should be encouraging.

Google is *very* good at delivering information. I use google.com all 
the time, and I'm also a Google Earth user. However, we wouldn't be at 
all happy if Google just stuck a pipe onto our computers and spewed 
information at them three times as fast as it could be read. Bandwidth 
on a group like this is precious (which, I recently had to be reminded, 
is why it's important Not to Feed the Trolls - trolls eat bandwidth up 
like nobody's business, and pretty soon whole days are taken up by 
responses to their inanities).

As time goes by I find myself more and more likely, getting to the end 
of a possibly sharp or vindictive response, to simply kill the post and 
take what pleasure I can from not having shared that particular piece of 
small-mindedness with the group. In the end our most valuable 
contributions to groups like this can be the gift of being able to walk 
away from a fight simply to keep the noise level down.

so-now-thank-me-for-not-saying-all-that-crap-ly y'rs  - steve
-- 
Steve Holden       +44 150 684 7255  +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC                     www.holdenweb.com
PyCon TX 2006                  www.python.org/pycon/