Re: Documentation and newbies

[Vernon Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hear, hear! But the 'pissed off' response did seem personal, extreme, and
not helpful.

As always, rtfm.  (Uh, that stands for 'fine')

Is there an FAQ on the list site with various suggestions on how to get
information? Like using the knowledge bases on the IBM site, how to use GO,
for both menus and commands, what the components of commands are, so that
we can use GO more effectively (they are published somewhere, I believe).
Things like entering the first part of a command and tacking on a "splat"
to get a list of the commands that start with that string.

There are so many things I just use these days, I can never think of
suggesting them when someone asks for tips. And I've been around this
platform for 13 years and am far from having it all at hand.

Regards

At 01:06 PM 6/14/02 -0400, you wrote:

-snip-

>I have tried to help my share of newcomers to the platform, but it is
>clearly not in the best interest of a newbie to ask a mailing list every
>question that pops into her mind.  Learning how to find, understand and use
>official documentation ought to be a crucial part of being a programmer.

Right on - one of the first things my instructor told me at computer class
was, no one's waiting around just to tell you what you can find on your
own. OTOH, I worked at a place that had a '15-minute rule' - if you can't
find it in 15 minutes, ask someone. Spinning wheels don't get the work done.

The proverb says, don't give them a fish, rather teach them how to fish.
Maybe it should be, give them the fish, and also teach them how to fish.