Re: Flame retardant
Re: Flame retardant
- Subject: Re: Flame retardant
- From: Sherm Pendley <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 21:52:45 -0400
On Thursday, May 23, 2002, at 08:05 PM, Roy Lovejoy wrote:
around 5/23/02 email@hidden (Charles Srstka) extolled:
GOOD:
Look at the documentation for NSString, specifically the "cString"
method. In
the future, please consult the documentation before posting questions
on the
list.
The person asked an honest question.. they didn't ask to be lectured..
Asking others for help without making the first effort to help oneself
is rude and inconsiderate. As a reply to that kind of attitude, I find
the above to be quite civil, and more than helpful enough to get the
newbie on the right track.
Perhaps, they are at a trade show and don't have access to any docs,
just their dev environment.. They have to fix a bug, and they are
hoping that a kind soul will help them out in their hour of need..
If all that were true, the poster would have explained the urgency of
his situation, probably in hopes of getting a quicker answer. Besides
which, if thy have internet access with which to send email, they can
use that same net access to read the online docs at apple.com.
Contrived examples aside, it's not all that difficult to tell if someone
who's asking a question has done their homework first. In fact, it's
pretty easy.
Unless the person is a chronic pest who sees a mailing list as their
personal 'outside developer', why not just ANSWER the question..
When you answer newbie questions, you're putting yourself in the role of
mentor. A mentor's job is more than just reciting facts on demand. A
mentor has to decide whether the direct answer a student is asking for
is really what best serves the student's needs, because the student may
lack the experience to make that decision for himself.
The point of guiding newbies to docs, instead of giving them easy
answers, is to help them learn to help themselves. When a newbie asks a
question like "how do I get a C string from an NSString," giving them a
direct, easy answer only solves their short term problem. The longer
term problem is that the newbie needs help learning how to find answers
to such simple questions for themselves.
A flame is a flame is a flame, whether it says "RTFM" or it's just a
bunch of random obscenity. RTFM-style responses, when they're delivered
in a civil tone and not as part of a flame, aren't meant to intimidate
or punish people. They're meant to help develop a very valuable, very
fundamental skill that every programmer should have.
As an aside, while this thread isn't technically on-topic for this list,
I do find it useful. As long as it doesn't devolve into people sniping
about one another's attitudes, and stays on track as a general
discussion about how to best help newcomers to this list, my vote is to
allow it to continue. What else are we to do, create a meta-list for
talking about the list? ;-)
sherm--
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law
against it by that time.
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