Why is Python popular, while Lisp and Scheme aren't?

[Ken Seehof]

At 08:15 PM 11/19/2002 Tuesday, Anna wrote:
>On Mon, 11 Nov 2002 07:50:57 +0000, Robin Munn wrote:
>
> > Brad Hards <bhards at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
> >> I'm certainly amazed at the tolerance people have for questions that
> >> are readily answered in a number of on-line tutorials, and in both the
> >> Python books that I have (Learning Python and the Python Cookbook). In
> >> the end, the friendly attitude may be the killer feature.
> >
> > Out of curiosity, do you think a response like: "That's covered in the
> > Python tutorial -- look at [URL]" will strike a newbie as friendly or
> > not? I ask because that's the kind of answer I will tend to write when
> > I'm in a hurry. Sometimes I will take the time to phrase the answer in
> > my own words, but often I won't want to duplicate the work that someone
> > else has already done in writing that tutorial. So if you were a newbie
> > getting a curt response like that, would you feel it was a brushoff, or
> > would you feel like your question had been answered?
>
>Okay - you asked. And since I am a newbie, I´ll answer.
>
>Before asking a question here, I´d have already read the tutorial (and
>probably 3 more tutorials and done a google search too). I wouldn´t feel
>comfortable asking here unless I had.
>
>So if I´m still here asking, it´s because I need an answer that *isn´t*
>just a reference to the tutorial, something from a live human being... So,
>yeah, I guess I would consider it a brushoff, unless you took the time to
>expand on the tutorial in some way... Personally, I´d far rather get no
>answer than ¨RTFM, silly newbie¨... cuz chances are, I already did...
>
>Just my $.03 worth.
>
>Anna

I think it's okay to refer the newbie to a specific page in the manual,
in the form of a url, if that is providing useful information, and isn't a
brushoff like "RTFM".  When I ask a question on a newsgroup, my
favorite responses are often urls.  The main problem newbies have
with documentation is that there is so much of it, and it is usually not
obvious which "FM" to read.  The important thing is for us to avoid
the impulse to make a potential python fanatic feel unwelcome.  It's
not so much whether the newbie is being referred to a manual, but
the underlying message: Are we saying, "You fool, stop wasting our
precious time...", or "Here, I hope this helps, enjoy...".

Ken