From: "W. Kent Starr" <elderburn@...>
Date: 2001-08-14T09:12:16+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:19666] Re: Ruby Newbie mailing list

On Monday 13 August 2001 16:40, David Alan Black wrote:
> Hello --
>
> On Tue, 14 Aug 2001, Michael Pence wrote:
> > I had in mind a newbie-helping-newbie kind of list, not spreading our
> > gurus any thinner.
>
> I can't speak for either the nubies or the gurus :-)  but I think the
> kind of list you're describing isn't likely to do much good.  It
> doesn't make sense for people without experience to answer the
> questions of other people without experience.
>
> > Do you really want some "how do code-blocks work again?" questions on
> > this list?
>
> No, but honestly, I haven't seen all that many questions of that kind
> here.  This list seems to be populated mostly people who study the
> available written materials and ask reasonable questions.  (Knock wood
>
> :-)
>
> David

As an education professional, david, you have no doubt picked up on the fact 
that the best way to learn is to teach :-)

Revisiting the basics is seldom a bad thing, even for the gurus. A 
revisitation from the fresh perspective of a a newbie can often be an 
eye-opener, perhaps leading to one of those "eureka" moments, whether one is 
a guru, a practitioner, the language designer or even another newbie! :-)

One of the fascinating characteristics of this list is that there appears to 
be a great willingness on the part of the more experienced to lead those with 
lesser experience towards the path of enlightnement, so to speak, in contrast 
to some where basic questions are at best unanswered and sometimes even 
verbally punished.

Personally, I believe this speaks to a level of greater maturity (not 
necessarily the chronological kind) and higher degree of professionalism 
among the majority of those who subscribe here. That's just my opinion as an 
observer and subscriber to many, many lists of all types.

Finally, an oft-metioned positive of Ruby is the expressive nature of its 
code structures. Given that, it is not really all that surprising that is 
practioners and gurus should be equally as expressive in providing 
assistaance and direction even to us lowly newbies.

Regards,

Kent Starr
elderburn@mindspring.com