Problems with Python documentation [Re: Don't feed the troll...]

[Joel Goldstick]

On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 6:50 PM, Steven D'Aprano <
steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:

> On Mon, 17 Jun 2013 07:41:54 -0700, rurpy wrote:
>
> > On 06/17/2013 01:23 AM, Chris Angelico wrote:
> >> On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 3:04 PM, Ferrous Cranus <support at superhost.gr>
> >> wrote:
> >>> The only thing i'm feeling guilty is that instead of reading help
> >>> files and PEP's which seem too technical for me, i prefer the live
> >>> help of an actual expert human being.
> >>
> >> This is definitely a reason to feel guilty. You are asking people to
> >> provide live help for free, rather than simply reading the
> >> documentation.
> >
> > It is NOT a matter of simply reading the documentation. I have posted
> > here several times as have many others about some of the problems the
> > documentation has, especially for people who don't already know Python.
>
> This is very reasonable. And nobody -- well, at least not me, and
> probably not Chris -- expects that reading the documentation will
> suddenly cause the light to shine for every beginner who reads it. Often
> the official docs are written with an expected audience who already knows
> the language well.
>
> But in context, Nikos has been programming Python long enough, and he's
> been told often enough, that his FIRST stop should be the documentation,
> and us second. Not what he does now, which is to make us his first,
> second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth stops.
>
> (Are you paying attention Nikos?)
>
> But speaking more generally, yes, you are right, the docs are not a
> panacea. If they were, mailing lists like this, and websites like
> StackOverflow, would not exist.
>
>
>
I read the python docs.  I've gone through the tutorials.  If not the first
time, or the second, I get that Aha moment with additional reads.  Some
people say they learn better by other methods than reading.  In that case,
google like crazy because python has lots of pycon stuff online in video
form, and there is the google course.  and many others.  If people
interaction is what you need, find, and visit your local meetup or user
group.  Lots of places have them.  If you don't have one near you, maybe
you could start one so you would have local help and back and forth
(fourth?).  I think its great to read a question here and get a link for an
answer.  gives me somewhere to go explore more.  If you reject these ways
of learning for the single method of asking.. fix my code.  Then you will
never get good at this craft anyway.  Its not the answers that are
important, its discovering how to find the answers that is really
important.  The old give a man a fish, vs teach a man to fish truism




-- 
Joel Goldstick
http://joelgoldstick.com
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