RE: [PHP] FAQ

I agree with everything you have said. I just don't think there is a good way to get people from asking these types of questions, without someone sitting there reading every message and filtering them according to topic. We are stuck with a high-volume list where lots of newbies come to ask us questions. If PHP wasn't so damn good and so popular we wouldn't be having this conversation. K E I T H V A N C E Software Engineer n-Link Corporation On Thu, 15 Mar 2001, Jason Lotito wrote: > > 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. > > > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-general-unsubscribe@lists.php.net > For additional commands, e-mail: php-general-help@lists.php.net > To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net > >