On 2006-11-04 18:40, Randall R Schulz wrote:
On Saturday 04 November 2006 15:27, Darryl Gregorash wrote:
...
You cannot expect someone who has little or no experience with the Unix-like environment to know, by any means, how best to ask a *nix-related question. The differences with what they are used to using are simply far too great.
Wrong. The how-tos of good question-asking are unrelated to the topic area. The context is:
You are speaking about form, Randall, when I am speaking of substance. The formulation of the specific question which states the problem, including any additional information needed to identify the problem to the reader, is a non-trivial exercise which, I assure you, few on this list properly understand. This statement is made independently of the particular general topic (SuSE, on this list); I have seen the same difficulties in the formulation of questions arise time and again, first as a university physics instructor, next as an instructor for the Army, and now here.
The proper response to a poorly formulated question is not to suggest the person asking it is an idiot.