RE: [PHP] FAQ

> How many times are people going to complain about no-brainer questions > being posted to the list. The fact of the matter is people are going to > post things on the list without reading the manual or the FAQ. It goes > with the territory. It annoys me too, but there is no good solution for > the problem. There is the fact that a lot of people are new and don't > really know where to go to find answers. Even if they go to the web site, > they still may not know that they need to be looking for information on > naming variables with variables or that fopen opens a file or whatever. > > K E I T H V A N C E I think the argument has less to do with people asking questions about PHP and how it works, and more about people asking basica programming questions without knowing it. Fundamental programming concepts, like the scope of a variable, passing by reference or by value, or even looping are things newbie's simply do not understand. Why? Because they don't know they need to learn the concepts and theories of programming before learning to program. It sounds odd, but that is the way it is. People asking questions about how a loop works are not usually asking how a PHP loop works. The same for arrays. They are really saying: "This is the first real programming language I am out to learn, and I don't understand the concept behind a For/Next Loop." This isn't a bad thing, heck, we were all newbies at one point, and in a sense, we are all newbies at something. I think the argument is that their are many people who don't want to learn how and why a For/Next Loop works, but instead simply want someone to fix the problem for them. That isn't programming. Programming (and yes, I know, PHP is technically a scripting language, but lets not jump that fence as well) is about trial and error, logic, and creativity, but most importantly, problem solving. Most of the newbies get into PHP expecting a tutorial on every topic. If they can't find a tutorial on how to print out 5 numbers, they expect someone to show them how to do it. They don't try and solve the problem themselves, and that is a problem. I don't mind assisting where I can, however, I don't like rewriting a script for someone when they don't even take the time to try and learn the fundamentals. Most newbies I have met fall into two categories. The majority start out wanting to learn PHP because someone said it was easy to learn, which it is, from a programmers point of view. However, when in the second week of learning their first programming language they can't program that PHP Database Content Management System with Instant Yahoo News Retrival complete with User Database, Forums, and Real Time Foo, they start getting upset and say that PHP sucks. Those same people may also complain because they can't find a tutorial on how to create a Forum Database, and all they can find are tutorials on the basics of Database Design. I think this is the real problem. Try to run before they have learned to crawl and walk. Jason Lotito www.NewbieNetwork.net Where those who can, teach; and those who can, learn.