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How to answer questions from newbies

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  How to answer questions from newbies Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2014-02-16 10:23 -0500
    Re: How to answer questions from newbies Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2014-02-16 07:53 -0800
      Re: How to answer questions from newbies Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2014-02-16 11:14 -0500
        Re: How to answer questions from newbies Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2014-02-16 17:39 -0800
          Re: How to answer questions from newbies Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2014-02-17 12:46 +1100
          Re: How to answer questions from newbies Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2014-02-17 13:02 +1100
    Re: How to answer questions from newbies Tony the Tiger <tony@tiger.invalid> - 2014-02-19 22:55 +0000

#66545 — How to answer questions from newbies

We get a lot of newbie questions on this list.  People are eager to jump 
in and answer them (which is wonderful), but sometimes we get off on 
tangents about trivia and lose sight of the real question, and our 
audience.

The particular one that set me off just now (I'm leaving off the names 
because it's a generic problem) was somebody asking a basic, "how do I 
code an algorithm to manipulate this data" question.  They presented 
some sample data as a tuple of tuples.

One of the (otherwise well-written and informative) responses started 
out with a 20-line treatise on the difference between lists and tuples, 
and why the OP should have used a list of tuples.  Nothing they said was 
wrong, but it wasn't essential to explaining the algorithm.

What I'm asking is that when people answer questions, try to figure out 
what the core question really is, and answer that first.  If there's 
other suggestions you can make for how things might be further improved, 
add those later.

Also, try to figure out what the experience level of the OP is, and 
scale your answer to fit their ability.  I've seen people who are 
obviously struggling with basic concepts in an introductory programming 
class get responses that include list comprehensions, lambdas, 
map/reduce, etc.  These are things people should learn along the road to 
Python guru-ness, but if you haven't figured out what a for loop is yet, 
those things are just going to confuse you even more.

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#66548

On Sunday, February 16, 2014 8:53:47 PM UTC+5:30, Roy Smith wrote:
> We get a lot of newbie questions on this list.  People are eager to jump 
> in and answer them (which is wonderful), but sometimes we get off on 
> tangents about trivia and lose sight of the real question, and our 
> audience.

> The particular one that set me off just now (I'm leaving off the names 
> because it's a generic problem) was somebody asking a basic, "how do I 
> code an algorithm to manipulate this data" question.  They presented 
> some sample data as a tuple of tuples.

> One of the (otherwise well-written and informative) responses started 
> out with a 20-line treatise on the difference between lists and tuples, 
> and why the OP should have used a list of tuples.  Nothing they said was 
> wrong, but it wasn't essential to explaining the algorithm.

> What I'm asking is that when people answer questions, try to figure out 
> what the core question really is, and answer that first.  If there's 
> other suggestions you can make for how things might be further improved, 
> add those later.

> Also, try to figure out what the experience level of the OP is, and 
> scale your answer to fit their ability.  I've seen people who are 
> obviously struggling with basic concepts in an introductory programming 
> class get responses that include list comprehensions, lambdas, 
> map/reduce, etc.  These are things people should learn along the road to 
> Python guru-ness, but if you haven't figured out what a for loop is yet, 
> those things are just going to confuse you even more.

Agreed!

Just one WARNING!
If you include comprehensions I shall include re's <wink>

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#66551

In article <c2078ca1-c85a-4795-8632-6b005436cc77@googlegroups.com>,
 Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sunday, February 16, 2014 8:53:47 PM UTC+5:30, Roy Smith wrote:
> > We get a lot of newbie questions on this list.  People are eager to jump 
> > in and answer them (which is wonderful), but sometimes we get off on 
> > tangents about trivia and lose sight of the real question, and our 
> > audience.
> 
> > The particular one that set me off just now (I'm leaving off the names 
> > because it's a generic problem) was somebody asking a basic, "how do I 
> > code an algorithm to manipulate this data" question.  They presented 
> > some sample data as a tuple of tuples.
> 
> > One of the (otherwise well-written and informative) responses started 
> > out with a 20-line treatise on the difference between lists and tuples, 
> > and why the OP should have used a list of tuples.  Nothing they said was 
> > wrong, but it wasn't essential to explaining the algorithm.
> 
> > What I'm asking is that when people answer questions, try to figure out 
> > what the core question really is, and answer that first.  If there's 
> > other suggestions you can make for how things might be further improved, 
> > add those later.
> 
> > Also, try to figure out what the experience level of the OP is, and 
> > scale your answer to fit their ability.  I've seen people who are 
> > obviously struggling with basic concepts in an introductory programming 
> > class get responses that include list comprehensions, lambdas, 
> > map/reduce, etc.  These are things people should learn along the road to 
> > Python guru-ness, but if you haven't figured out what a for loop is yet, 
> > those things are just going to confuse you even more.
> 
> Agreed!
> 
> Just one WARNING!
> If you include comprehensions I shall include re's <wink>

Moi?

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#66575

On Sunday, February 16, 2014 9:44:00 PM UTC+5:30, Roy Smith wrote:
> Moi?

See thats the problem with re's -- just 3 letters and completely incomprehensible!
It even resembles our resident unicode-troll
Oui?

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#66577

Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> writes:

> On Sunday, February 16, 2014 9:44:00 PM UTC+5:30, Roy Smith wrote:
> > Moi?
>
> See thats the problem with re's -- just 3 letters and completely
> incomprehensible!

Actually, that's a regexp pattern that matches two *or* three letters.

-- 
 \         “If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all |
  `\    others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking |
_o__)                          power called an idea” —Thomas Jefferson |
Ben Finney

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#66579

On Mon, Feb 17, 2014 at 12:46 PM, Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> wrote:
> Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Sunday, February 16, 2014 9:44:00 PM UTC+5:30, Roy Smith wrote:
>> > Moi?
>>
>> See thats the problem with re's -- just 3 letters and completely
>> incomprehensible!
>
> Actually, that's a regexp pattern that matches two *or* three letters.

It's worse if you emphasize it.

Did you say *re*?

But let's not be greedy, here.

ChrisA

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#66726

On Sun, 16 Feb 2014 10:23:47 -0500, Roy Smith wrote:

[...]
> These are things people should learn along the road to Python guru-ness,
> but if you haven't figured out what a for loop is yet,
> those things are just going to confuse you even more.

Well put!

Couple things missing:

When responding, cut out irrelevant stuff. We don't need a mile high 
stack of quoted lines only to find a "You're silly" at the bottom.

Do not top post. It makes it even more confusing when one top posts, and 
others don't:

-----------------------------------------
Q: Who died and made you queen?

A: Because you get the wrong order.

Q: Why shouldn't I top post?

A: Because I said so!

A: Not necessarily. In email it is, by
   some, considered the right order.
-----------------------------------------

...and especially if nobody cuts out irrelevant stuff.


 /Grrr
-- 
          ___                  ___
 (\_--_/)  | _ ._    _|_|_  _   |o _  _ ._
 ( 9  9 )  |(_)| |\/  |_| |(/_  ||(_|(/_|
 stripes are forever - as overripe ferrets

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