I believe in community and helping people out, if someone is struggling then I try to help.
When you have been developing for several years it is much easier to produce code as you have the experience and also the tools. Someone who is just starting to learn a language it is hard to understand what to do, and probably scared of trying new things. To have someone provide a bit of code to help, gives someone confidence to move on. I also have to product code quickly and sometimes I do not know where to start, manuals are a start, but usually they do not give the code to do specific things. My process is: - Look in a manual Search the web PHP websites and newgroups Then post on a newsgroup My thought is someone out there has had a simular problem, and solved it, then hopefully they will share the solution. David Anagram Systems http://www.anagram-sys.co.uk/ http://www.web-planets.com/davec/techsitedb/ "Mike Brum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED] While sometimes a new perspective is extremely useful on a topic, I think the problem is that a huge percentage of people don't try for themselves. If they've done all the steps in the proposed message, then it tells you to send a message explaining where you're at to the list. While it can be pretentious to send someone to the manual if they say "I read the manual, I can't figure it out", if they haven't even tried doing it for themselves yet, then it's a very viable first recommendation. Not to mention that there's MANY different points of views on many different topics in the list archives that very few people seem to search. Someone should always try to help themselves first before they start asking other people to do the work for them. It's just laziness to not even try before asking. My suggestion would be to have that message sent to a person just after signing up once, instead of to everyone on a regular basis though. my $.02 -M -----Original Message----- From: Van Andel, Robbert [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 1:08 PM To: PHP Mailing List Subject: RE: [PHP] [Newbie Guide] For the benefits of new members Personally, I think one of the worst replies someone on the list can do when someone new asks a question is send only a link to the manual. It's presumption that everyone will understand the way the manual is worded. There have been times when it's confused me and I needed another perspective on the topic. If you find the question juvenile or unworthy of anything more than a link to the manual, don't reply to it. Robbert van Andel -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 5:44 AM To: PHP Mailing List Subject: [PHP] [Newbie Guide] For the benefits of new members I have been following this list for the past 1 year. I find it very useful. Just by following the discussions for a couple of months one can understand a great deal about PHP. What I proposed to do is to send this mail to the list every week. Those who do not want to be bothered just filter out the [Newbie Guide] mails. Please feel free to add more points and send to the list. ==================================================== 1. If you have any queries/problems about PHP try http://www.php.net/manual first. You can download a copy and use it offline also. 2. If you can not get answer here try http://www.google.com next. Try searching for "php YOUR QUERY" and you may be lucky to get an answer within the first 10 results. 3. Glancing through the list archive at http://www.php.net/archives, should answer almost all common problems. 4. If you are stuck with a script and do not understand what is wrong, instead of posting the whole script, try doing some research yourself. One useful trick is to print the variable, sql query using print or echo command and check whether you get what you expected. After diagnosing the problem, send the details of your efforts (following steps 1,2 & 3) and ask for help in the list. 5. Provide a clear descriptive subject line. Avoid general subjects like "Help!!", "A Question" etc. 6. When you want to start a new topic, open a new mail and enter the mailing list address [EMAIL PROTECTED] instead of replyting to an existing thread and replacing the subject and body with your message. Hope you have a good time programming with PHP. Best regards, -- Ma Siva Kumar, ================================================ INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT TOOLS FOR LEATHER INDUSTRY BSG LeatherLink, Chennai. Ph: +91 44 55191757 URL : http://www.leatherlink.net -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
