Thursday, October 16, 2003
RTFM
I spend lots of time everyday on newsgroups, the Universal Thread and other support forums so I should be used to questions that the answer is simple to find. For example, VFP8 changed the way is aggregates data in a SQL GROUP BY clause to be more standards compliant. This is well documented and easy to find in the What's New section of the help file. There's even the SET ENGINE BEHAVIOR command to get the old behavior. Yet, people would rather post and complain about a "bug" rather than Read The F***** Manual.
There's another type of post that should never be made. This is the "Can function x do y?" question. These are typically things that would take no more than five minutes of experimentation to discover. What the hell do you think the Command Window is for? Much of the time this is documented in the help file too.
So, to help you out, here are some things you should do before making a post:
1. When you get a new version of the software read the entire "What's New" section of the help file AND the Readme file.
2. When you install a new service pack, make sure you actually read the Readme.
3. Learn how to use the F1 key. The help files don't contain everthing, but there's lots of information there.
4. Instead of asking "Can X do Y?", try a bit of experimentation. You'll learn alot more about the language, testing, debugging, and development than just posting the question. Many times when you experiment, you'll then see other things and start to ask, "Can X do Z?". It will also take less time than posting the question and then waiting around for someone to answer it.
There's another type of post that should never be made. This is the "Can function x do y?" question. These are typically things that would take no more than five minutes of experimentation to discover. What the hell do you think the Command Window is for? Much of the time this is documented in the help file too.
So, to help you out, here are some things you should do before making a post:
1. When you get a new version of the software read the entire "What's New" section of the help file AND the Readme file.
2. When you install a new service pack, make sure you actually read the Readme.
3. Learn how to use the F1 key. The help files don't contain everthing, but there's lots of information there.
4. Instead of asking "Can X do Y?", try a bit of experimentation. You'll learn alot more about the language, testing, debugging, and development than just posting the question. Many times when you experiment, you'll then see other things and start to ask, "Can X do Z?". It will also take less time than posting the question and then waiting around for someone to answer it.
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