Kee Nethery wrote:
As someone trying to learn the language I want to say that the tone on
this list towards people who are trying to learn Python feels like it
has become anti-newbies.
Learning a new language is difficult enough without seeing other
newbies getting shamed for not knowing everything there is to know
about Python before asking their questions.
For example, the guy who was looking for Python sample code for the
Google Map API, calling him a troll was harsh. Suggesting he broach the
question to Google was a reasonable answer. By the same token, his
asking this list about the missing Python examples seems reasonable
also. Seems to me that people on a Python list might have some
background knowledge or even samples of the Google Python code that was
no longer on the Google web site.
There seems to be a general consensus among the newbies that other
languages have a user contributions resource tied to the main official
docs to allow newbies to teach each other what they have learned. The
desire is for python.org to have the same kind of support resource so
that us newbies can self support each other.
Kee Nethery
As someone who is (hopefully!) leaving newbieness I can say I have had
no problem with the helpfullness of this list. I will also say that
before I ever posted any questions I had devoured Dive Into Python and
How To Think Like a Computer Scientist Using Python (both excellent),
and I try to put as much detail into my questions as I can so nobody has
to guess what I'm trying to do.
As someone who relies heavily on the docs I will also say that the idea
of giving the ability to modify the official documentation to somebody
who is /learning/ the language is, quite frankly, terrifying. I have no
issues with a seperate system, some of which have been suggested, but
good reference documentation is crucial. If you find examples lacking,
there are plenty of web-sites, or even (dare I say it?) actual hard-copy
books! ;) My bookshelf currently has Learning Python, Programming
Python, Python Cookbook, Python Programming on Win32, and Regular
Expressions. All great books, and not too pricey if you can get them used.
My $0.02.
~Ethan~
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