[Tutor] My two cents worth re Python Newbies

[Remco Gerlich]

On Wed, Feb 28, 2001 at 12:43:53PM +1000, Arthur Watts wrote:
> 	The majority of posts to the Tutor mailing lists are from people who
> have tried to resolve a particular problem before resorting to the list.
> Some, however, are simply 'noise'. I find the patient, thoughtful replies
> given by the good souls on this list to be a real eye-opener, and I commend
> you for your warmth and dedication when responding to newbie enquiries. My
> own view is that the list should be for people who are able to :
> 
> 	a. Read
> 	b. Use a Net search engine
> 	c. Navigate to www.python.org
> 	d. Use the skills detailed above to find other Python resources

My own view is that the list should be for people who are new to Python and
want to learn it, and that's all.

Someone on comp.lang.python asked what a text editor was and got some good
replies. On the other hand sometimes extremely difficult questions will be
answered real quickly as well. That's what I like about the Python community.

> 	I realise that some may brand me elitist, but I am far from it : I
> still have a lot to learn re. Python and other Open Source products. The key
> is that I am prepared to actually cut some code or attempt to configure a
> product before I fire off a posting re. a particular issue.  We need to
> welcome thinking people to the Python community, and filter out those who
> have a problem with RTFM. 

This is where I totally disagree. What we need to do is help people learn
Python. That's what this list does. If they have a problem with thinking or
RTFM, we can teach them. If you don't want to waste time explaining stuff
that is obvious to you, then don't.

Filtering out people because they're not intelligent enough according to you
is the most elitist idea I've heard this week.

The *last* thing the community needs is people who point out "RTFM" to every
question they see...

-- 
Remco Gerlich