From: Edwin Fine Date: 2007-02-17T04:03:57+09:00 Subject: Re: Adopt-a-newbie? Based on actual experience. First, *my* definition of "newbie" just for this post: A person who is generally inexperienced in computer programming, and specifically inexperienced in Ruby programming. Therefore, when mentioning newbies in this post, I do not refer to people who are already adept at programming in another language but just don't know Ruby. I believe most of such people would not hesitate to post to a forum, and would not really want or need a mentor. They would also hopefully know how to ask questions in a clear way. I mentor developers as part of my job. Based on experience, I would say that newbies as defined above should execute the following algorithm (which contains polite versions of RTFM and STFW) to get maximum benefit from a mentor: newbie.read_the_manual or newbie.search_the_web or newbie.read_ruby_books or newbie.ask_mentor or newbie.post_to_ruby_forum # Last resort It is unfortunately not rare to encounter people who will not exhaust all other self-help possibilities before asking others for help. I will not opine on why this is so. However, IMHO, help is given freely and happily when the helpee has demonstrated sufficient gumption, and consideration for other people's time, to try to find the solution using the above algorithm. Newbies should, in their email or forum post, clearly describe the problem, and explain what they did, prior to asking for help, to solve the problem. This will give the ones who are being asked the question enough information to reduce or eliminate the need to ask the newbie follow-up questions before being able to answer. Although some people find the content at the following link to be objectionable and rude, it does cut to the heart of the matter and is worthwhile reading for all newbies: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html If they agree to adhere to the above conduct, I will volunteer to take on a couple of newbies. This is dependent on time and workload, so patience is a virtue; I may not be able to answer instantly. It does not mean I am ignoring you. My background is that I have been developing software for an embarrassingly long time, mostly in C++ and Java, on various platforms. I use Ruby on a daily basis to automate Linux- and Unix-based tasks such as performance monitoring, graphing, data analysis, and as a replacement for shell scripting when possible. I provided some Ruby extension code for the ruby-informix and RubyWMQ projects. I also use Ruby at home on Ubuntu Edgy x86_64; the last significant thing I did was reorganize my MP3 collection's directory structure by artist and album, using the ID3 tags. I have been using Ruby for about 18 months, so IANARG (I am not a Ruby Guru), but I have pretty much read all the books and manuals and written a fair amount of stuff. I am a systems-type developer, so GUI questions are not a great idea. I also don't know Rails (yet). Finally, I don't think it is a good idea to post email addresses and personal contact details on this or any forum. I would suggest using the email links provided by this forum to contact me with your details. Best regards, Edwin Fine -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.