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New to Python: Features

Andrew Dalke adalke at mindspring.com
Tue Oct 5 16:57:18 EDT 2004 
Me:
>>Indeed.  I did some checking and your email address had no
>>hits in Google so I assumed you were a new person.  Even
>>your domain is almost unknown to Google Groups except for
>>a few recent posts from one other 'nym to comp.lang.python...

Neuruss wrote:
> For God's sake... Cut the boy some slack!

I was checking to see if my assumption, that the OP was
posting this as a homework assignment, had some justifiable
basis.  Had the search taken me to a student account with
a link to "I'm in CS 1234 this fall" which had this list
of questions as an assignment then I definitely would have
responded differently.

It did not, so I instead responded explaining the reasons
for my wariness and what might be done to remedy that.

The time needed to do the check was, what, 30 seconds?

> I don't understand this kind of reactions. If some reader gets
> "offended" by someone's post, why not just ignore him and go on with
> our lives?

I've spent time helping with the docs, the FAQ,
contributing code, etc.  Minor compared to some, but
still non-trivial effort.  To be asked these
questions without making even the most basic efforts
to scan the available information is saying that our
work is in vain.

With no feedback there is no hope for correction.
Ostracism is a form of feedback, but not very strong.

> What's the strange pleasure of dedicating typing time and energy in
> punishing people just for being a little out of place?

You presume too much.  Then again there are some fields
of thought which say all things are done for pleasure
and that ideas like charity and philanthropy are figments
where the underlying reason is to make the givers feel better.

And I had an hour to kill waiting for a phone call.
Time I frequently spend on providing answers and
commentary to c.l.py.

> A short phrase of warning should be enough, don't you think?

I thought that's what I did.  ... checking ... No, not
short.  I also answered several of the OP's questions
in such a way to explain why short answers weren't possible,
gave pointers to places that would answer his questions,
and explained the reasoning behind why I ended with a
"short phrase of warning".

Should I have just answered using my final paragraph

 >> Please read the basic Python documentation before
 >> asking these questions.

?  That would to me have been no better than saying "RTM".

				Andrew
				dalke at dalkescientific.com
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