Introduction to my fellow Python Friends

[Dave Angel]

Krishnan Shankar wrote:

> Hi Friends,

Hi, and welcome to the mailing list.

    <snip>


> I figured out that the best way is to talk to the experts and so i
> subscribed to this mailing list. It will be cool if anybody can help me out
> by telling the etiquette of this mailing list, like
>
> 1. How to acknowledge a reply? Should i put a one to one mail or send it to
> the mailing list itself?

Acknowledgement is not usually necessary.  Sometimes you want to make a
special thanks, with no useful information for others.  In that case, an
email to the individual is called for.  But in most cases, you should do
a "reply" to the list, and not to the individual.  See below for caveats
on what I mean by reply.

> 2. How can i see or get a question asked by someone else? (So that i can
> reply for that with my best possible knowledge. I currently get as Python
> mail Digest)

The digest is a combination of everything posted to the list for some
period of time.  Its title is generic, and replies to it are not
threaded into the list in a meaningful way.  If your email program can
handle it, consider turning off the digest feature.  if your email
program cannot handle it, consider using a different way to access the
list.

What I used to do with a digest was to have my email program treat the
indivdual messages in the digest as attachments, and reply to the
attachment itself.  Then I discovered that by turning off digest and
telling my email program to track threads, I could more easily place
each message in context.  Then I realized that my email program could
treat the list as a newsgroup (which is what it really is), and not
affect the way I accessed it very much.  Finally, I switched to a
dedicated newsreader.

In order to relate messages that are intended to be threaded together,
you want to use the same subject line (Notice that my newsreader added
the letters "Re:" in front of your subject line).  Don't post a message
with the subject like:  Re: Python-list Digest, Vol 119, Issue 37

Even better, you want to actually reply-all to the individual message. 
This puts some invisible stuff in the header that makes it practical for
savvy newsreaders & mailreaders to see just where in the thread you're
replying.

Better still, you use a Reply-list, which sends to the list only, not to
the individual.  You can do that with reply-all, just by removing the
extra name(s).

> 3. How can i use this mailing list in the best possible way?

Don't send HTML mails (as you have here, see  a little nonsense at
the end which I left in for your edification). In many cases, it'll
distort your response, either because of the encoding in your mail
program, or the decoding at our end. A text forum should get only text
messages, where what you send is what we see. This also means we don't
see colors, special fonts, or funny formatting. If you're using email,
specify TEXT email. It also saves space in every message, and for
those of us paying per megabyte, it can add up.

Don't use tabs.  Indent your code by 4 column intervals, represented by
spaces.  If you use tabs, some people won't see any indentation, others
will see one column, and others will see 8 columns.

Do pick a good subject line (as you have here).  "Help" isn't a good
subject, and neither is "urgent problem".  Describe something about
what's not working for you, even if you turn out to guess wrong.

Do specify your environment with your original post on any thread.  You
may not think the problem you're having with input() is related to which
OS you're using AND which version of Python, but it probably does.  And
for other problems there can at least be subtle differences.  So at a
minimum, say "I'm running Python 3.3 on Linux"  or whatever.

Finally, show your code, explain what you expected to happen, and be
explicit about what did happen, preferably by copy/pasting the
responses.  If there's an error, post the entire traceback.

> I hope to have a wonderful time with Python here. I hope i am not wasting
> your time. Sorry for the inconvenience if i am.

No inconvenience.  A real pleasure to see someone who explicitly wants
to fit in.  Most do, but assume that it'll be automatic.

Following is a little piece of the html in the original message.
>
> <div dir="ltr">Hi Friends,<div><br></div><div style>I would like


>

-- 
DaveA