Steve Teale <steve.teale@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > Congratulations on a helpful answer. Yours was the first one that did > not display the almost conventional GCC guru arrogance. > > GCC would have a lot more participants/helpers if it were not for this > unwritten convention of rudeness in the community. > > To be fair, this isn't just a GCC thing. I've worked in various shops > where the software paid the wages, but if a new employee asked for help > he/she would get a similar response. > > I understand the impatience of the gurus. If they tried to answer every > naive question they'd never get any work done > > But, if you don't have anything helpful to say, then maybe it's better > to bite your tongue! The person you are responding to may be an idiot, > but he/she is not the only recipient of your message. Are you talking about gcc-help here? It seems to me that people on gcc-help genuinely try to be helpful. There is no percentage for anybody in replying on gcc-help with an unhelpful answer. When people don't know how to program, I do honestly think the most helpful answer is to tell them, politely, to learn how to program. It's gcc-help, not intro-programming. I am generally concerned that the gcc community be seen as helpful rather than forbidding, which is why I spend time on gcc-help. So I would like to hear more about this topic. Ian
