On Thu, 5 Aug 2010, Les Mikesell wrote: > 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. I guess I'm not convinced (though I'm really not trying to be stubborn or curmudgeonly :-). I'll grant that in both cases the request is essentially the same: "Help me do this." When someone's "this" is their whole scripting project rather than a particular section of it, however, I guess I just roll my inner eye and delete the message. When someone has narrowed the question to a technological particular, I'm much more willing to assist. I realize the only difference is the scope of the question. Am I more inclined to treat the latter questioner as a willing learner and the former like a layabout? Is it simply that the larger the scope, the more reluctant I am to understand and contribute? Hmm. Must navel-gaze on this... -- Paul Heinlein <> heinlein at madboa.com <> http://www.madboa.com/