Dimitry Sibiryakov wrote:

>>c) To increase their knowledge by asking people who have already done a)
>>to get helpful and educational replies.
>
> Right. But most of topic starters here don't want knowledge, they
> want ready-to-use solution. For free.

And if you as an expert don't want to give that for free, that is up to
you. Noone is forcing you to participate or answer anything. But we, as
forum participants, expect you, and everyone else there, to be polite.
If you can't be poilte, maybe it is better you just stay out. There are
other experts... And even if some questions are simple or simplistic to
you, they may very well not be so to the person who asks them
(otherwise, why would they ask?).

Different people have different talents. Some are great at painting and
some are great at writing and understanding SQL. Maybe some people who
work with SQL shouldn't, because they don't have the talent, but then
again, that goes for painters too, but still they paint and still they
write SQL. Who are we to say they aren't be allowed to?

So, if you find a question too simple or dumb, please just skip it.
Others will probably reply instead. I am not an expert but I can answer
some questions. Perhaps those "silly" questions that make your blood
boil is better answered by "lesser" experts, who don't find the question
quite so silly.

Regarding knowledge vs. ready-to-use solutions: If you're in a project
and have very limited time, you often tend to go for
just-help-me-do-this rather than
please-give-me-deep-knowledge-and-understanding. Perhaps you're just too
stressed out to be able to take very much new knowledge in. You can't
expect everyone to have unlimited time to learn new stuff that he/she
may need only just this one time for a very specific and short-term need.

>>I think a and c often work in conjunction, and for FB with it's
>>scattered and (relatively) difficult-to-find documentation, c) becomes
>>more important than a) in many situations.
>
> I don't think that FB documentation is difficult-to-find. All it is
> placed on one page: http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?op=doc.

But it's scattered (and incomplete?) in various ways. Can you point me
to ONE documentation that's COMPLETE for FB? I find refs to IB 6 +
release notes, an independent FAQ, various guides covering some specific
aspects,... But no complete language ref for example. That is what's
needed to be perceived as "easy to find and complete".

>>So, some extra effort in the documentation area (and who will volonteer
>>for that...?) and some extra effort from experts to be helpful rather
>>than rude would probably do a lot for FB.
>
> Excellent expression: "do a lot". One question though: "do a lot of
> WHAT?"

Good. A lot of good. Help FB become popular. It is not a strange
expression. It's a common idiomatic way of saying exactly that, even if
the "good" part is impled.

>>Experts who find questions to be stupid would probably do better by just
>>ignoring the question rather than replying in a rude way.
>
> It will result in opinion that questions are too smart to be answered.

Rarely, since others will probably give (hopefully helpful and polite)
answers that actually show that it was something simple. And even if it
does happen now and then, what harm would it do?

> PS: This discussion would be better in firebird-general.

Yes. Posted there... Here... :-)

Kjell
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