RE: Re: Optimizing..

Before this issue gets out of hand I think we should all consider why we access this newsgroup in the first place. Many of us cannot afford the time or the money to attend all of the classes offered. Many of us find ourselves working on-site where the manuals are often not as available as they should be. When a question is asked the answer might be contained in the manuals, or in training courses. It often is, but navigating the written documentation can be very time consuming, even with the Online documentation. A quick question to c.d.i can be useful in those circumstances. On the other hand, there are on average 50 messages a day on this group. Anybody who reads all the messages will spend on average 1 hour of their own time each day just looking at these messages. If they choose to respond this can increase the time. A full and detailed response to every question is not always possible. Hence answers like RTFM, Take a course, can often be the easiest way to help. It all comes down to the quality of the initial question. If you are up against a deadline for an answer, make sure that recipients know this. If you don't have access to documentation from your current site, again let people know. If your current site doesn't have tech support even that is significant. And if you've done the class and still need help, once again let us know. And be very careful to document exactly what products and versions you are using. I have given incorrect advice because people did not define their environment correctly. We all access cdi to get answers and to ask questions. The more accurate the question the more accurate the answer. But, please, don't start flaming each other for trying. That only increases the number of emails we all receive. regards malcolm At 16:52 07/04/98 +0200, Billy Wheeler wrote: >On 7 Apr 98 at 13:38, jamienash@cim.co.uk wrote: > >> Whats the point in people sendin gin problems they have like the one >> below, when you get dickheads that answer peoples queries saying >> 'Attend a course' or 'read the manual' how does that help someone?. >> The person with the problem may have already tried to fin d the >> answer in the manual and may not understand it, or can't find it. >> Why not give them a decent answer to the question. I thought this >> mailing list was for people to share knowledge and experience, not >> take the piss out of people that know less than us. > >Er no. If people send in questions like "how do I optimise a query >like this (SELECT yadda-yadda...) given table structures like this >(CREATE TABLE foo...) and record volumes like this with indexes like >this on this database engine, dickheads can give very specific >observations. > >What would you say if I said "how do I design a database?" Am I using >Informix? Am I using VTAM? Am I using UNIX text files? Is it a data >warehouse? > >My advice for tuning a SE 4.x database is very different from my >advice for tuning OnLine 7.23. > >Open-ended questions lead to open-ended answers. > >I didn't consider it to be taking the piss, and Abel, my apologies if >that's what you understood my reply to mean. > >And my observations stand. All the information on performance tuning >*I* know could easily be found in the docs for the platform. If you >are the kind of person that does better with structured training, the >courses are excellent. (I know, I give them all the time.) > >I could quite easily have flamed Abel for not providing sufficient >detail on his queries, which is my standard reply to such vague >queries. > >I certainly didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition. > >-- > >/Ciao, >\\Billy >/ >\\Group Managing Director, The West Solutions Group: http://www.west.co.za >/ Chairman, South African Informix User Group: http://www.west.co.za/~saiug >\\ Drivel @ http://www.west.co.za/tasteless/ >/ >\\ "Granted, Mr Wheeler's ideas are stupid and unreasonable, but he does own the company and I >/ think we should go along with him..." >\\__________________________________________________________________________ ______________________ > > Malcolm Weallans Online Database Consultancy (+44)1628 672154 Fax (+44)1628 637463