From: John Joyce <dangerwillrobinsondanger@...>
Date: 2007-04-27T17:41:49+09:00
Subject: Re: C++ code into Ruby, I need it fast, no time for RTFM


On Apr 27, 2007, at 5:05 PM, Robert Dober wrote:

> On 4/26/07, Chris Carter <cdcarter@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 4/26/07, Michael T. Richter <ttmrichter@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >  On Wed, 2007-25-04 at 21:12 +0900, David Jones wrote:
>> >
>> > There are still ways to ask for things.
>> >
>> >
>> > And those ways vary by culture.  Andrei is painfully obviously  
>> not a
>> > native English speaker.  Cut the guy some slack.  What happened  
>> to the whole
>> > "Matz Is Nice So...." meme that supposedly dominates this  
>> community?
>> >
>> >   --
>> > *Michael T. Richter* <ttmrichter@gmail.com> (*GoogleTalk:*
>> > ttmrichter@gmail.com)
>> > *A well-designed and humane interface does not need to be split  
>> into
>> > beginner and expert subsystems. (Jef Raskin)*
>> >
>> >
>> I agree, this mailing list seems to be getting a lot more hostile  
>> towards
>> people new to ruby.  Posting a link to google or how to ask  
>> questions, or
>> making a snide remark about how they format their messages is not  
>> going to
>> get people into ruby.  I know if someone just posted a link to  
>> google with
>> nothing else if I asked a question about a new language, I would  
>> be turned
>> off from it, even if I could have asked it better.
> Hmm are you not exaggerating a bit?
> I was *very* amused that OP got answers at all!
> Personally I feel that this is still a great community and that this
> community should not stretch to be more popular at any cost.
> I had pretty much preferred to ignore that post but others decided,
> very honorably, to tell OP to change his attitude if he wants to
> obtain something.
> I think that your statement "could have asked it better" is the
> euphemism of the month ;).
> Cheers
> Robert
>
>
> -- 
> You see things; and you say Why?
> But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?
> -- George Bernard Shaw
>
Not to harp on the issue, but had the same post gone to C or C++  
mailing-list, it would've been flamed only with no solutions. The  
beauty of the Ruby world is that (in the words of Masayoshi  
Takahashi, of Ruby Kaigi) "Ruby is for lazy people" "java and c++ are  
for diligent people". It means Ruby is fun and not painful like many  
languages, so people actually enjoy responding to the list and trying  
to make nice code!
The culture of those other languages tends to be the anal-retentive,  
I'm-smarter-than-you, RTFM attitude.
In Ruby, RTFM is RTWFM, where W = wonderful. Unlike those other  
languages, this stuff isn't terse and most of the books are good  
ones. (Nothing is more annoying to me than being referred to K&R2,  
one of the least accessible texts I've ever read, even though it does  
have a wealth of good information in it.)