On Friday 06 August 2010, Scott Marlowe elucidated thus:
> >> Everyone of my trainees want such thing - for databases, for other
> >> programming-languages etc. It's the worst thing you can give them.
> >> The< will copy, they will paste and they will understand nothing.
> >> Learning is the way to understanding, not copying.
> >
> > I couldn't disagree more. Presenting working code (at least
> > snippets) should continue to be a fundamental part of any
> > documentation project.
>
> I agree. It's especially useful if you're dealing with folks who
> already have a clue, but may not be 100% familiar with how SQL or a
> particular language. I had a Perl cookbook back in the day that was
> priceless when I was switching from C to Perl. I didn't just copy
> and paste, but I did certainly learn a lot looking at other people's
> code.
I'll add in a "me too" only to say that I am someone that learns best by
example. Reading about an API or function call is great, but I'll pick
it up faster, and understand it better, if you show me an example of it
in use (preferably multiple examples).
So, a "getting started" guide and/or cookbook would be great. Another
cool idea: a MySQL -> PostgreSQL migration guide (I'm sure there's
already one out there) that would show "To do *this* MySQL function in
PostgreSQL, use this function/feature/etc." A good example is
auto_increment -> serial. A comparison/contrast of permission would be
good too. I'm sure others can think of more examples.
So, that's my 2c.
j
--
Joshua Kugler
Part-Time System Admin/Programmer
http://www.eeinternet.com
PGP Key: http://pgp.mit.edu/ ID 0x73B13B6A
