Newbie Questions -Reply

Amen and Amen!

When I was starting out, the company I worked for put me on
telephone support for their Sys36 line of products...like on the
FIRST *&$^# DAY!!  I did spend a good deal of time w/my nose in a
manual and puzzeling out code, but I'd have killed for a resource
like this list.  

To say nothing of my self taught efforts to move on to the
Sys38-AS/400.  The Sys36 was/is a great box, but it was very
apparent that the AS/400 was the coming technology both from IBM
and from my company.  Unfortunately, assistance and mentoring was
not to be found...those persons "fortunate" enough to have been
assigned to the "cool & new stuff" were not willing to share their
knowledge.  I think probably they were proctecting "turf" and their
personal value to the company, but whatever the reason I was forced
to beg, borrow, plead, and steal just to get a /400 signon.  From
there I was on my own...I ouldn't even get people to loan me a
manual, much less point out some of the more glaring errors I made.

Maybe my experience is rare, but from that day forward I have always
sworn to be the answer man to the best of my ability, no matter how
"dumb" the question might be.  True, my favorite acronym is RTFM, but
even if the answer is in the manual, pointing the newbie to the
correct book and explaining what they're looking at really means is
the type of encouragement that will lead to more and more
experimentation.  If we really want the /400 to become the
widespread force it can and should be, discouraging "newbie"
questions appears IMHO to be counterproductive in the extreme!

Scott Cornell
Mercy Information Systems

>>> <DAsmussen@aol.com> 10/09/98 04:26am >>>
Hello All,

I may be wrong here but would like to start a discussion, if
warranted, on the
above subject.  In other words, respond to the list if you take issue
with
what I'm about to say, _NOT_ offline.  There have been several
questions
posted lately from AS/400 newbies and, frankly, I was _APPALLED_
at some of
your responses.  Try to remember that the majority of AS/400
_PROFESSIONALS_
couldn't find this list (or anything else on the Internet) with both
hands and
a flashlight.  Those of you that have moved from RPG or COBOL to
OO should
recall how difficult _that_ transition was at first -- just try to imagine
moving the _OTHER_ way.  

Granted some of the questions were a little lower-level than we are
used to
seeing here; however, IMO this list is for the free exchange of
information
regarding the AS/400 and IBM midrange systems at large to _ALL_
people
regardless of talent level (or employment situation).  Also IMO, get
used to
it -- thanks in part to the efforts of people here, more people are
discovering the AS/400 that are already OO/Internet-savvy, and those
forced
into 3GL's will inevitably ask questions like these.  If you don't have
anything constructive to say and its' not a "spammer", please don't say
anything at all -- we need all the AS/400 talent we can get...at
_ALL_
levels...

JMHO,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages." -- Bill Mauldin
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