On Thu, 5 Aug 2010, Les Mikesell wrote: > To: centos at centos.org > From: Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [CentOS] Dogs, trolls, and neighborly free/open source > > On 8/5/2010 12:25 PM, Paul Heinlein wrote: >> On Thu, 5 Aug 2010, Les Mikesell wrote: >> >>> The part I have trouble understanding is that while it seems >>> perfectly acceptable to be dumb about most coding languages and ask >>> for a canned routine to do something you are too lazy to write for >>> yourself, the same does not apply to shell commands even though >>> there is not much inherent difference in complexity. Is it just >>> that coders are more willing to share their work than administrators >>> even in cases where it is equally reusable? >> >> The major difference I've seen in that sort of request is that >> coders tend to ask for help with a small subset of the >> overall task (a routine) while erstwhile admins tend to ask for help >> with the totality of the task. >> >> When someone says, "I'm writing a shell script, and hereabouts I need >> $TOOL to do such and such," a good answer is usually forthcoming. >> >> When someone says, "Tell me how to script this $PROJECT," the >> commmunity usually points the OP off to Google/Manual. > > I don't think it is the nature of the requests that are different > (although coders perhaps have to know more to even ask a reasonable > question), just the responses. Coders seem much more likely to try to > make their work available to others that haven't even asked while > administrators pretend that everything they do is unique and not > reusable - or they don't want it to be. What about a Centos newbies list. That way way they'll have to look for the answer amongst themselves. Once they have been approved on the newbie list, then allow them to post on this list? Kind Regards, Keith Roberts