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.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell at gmail.com