[Tutor] writing function changeColor

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 05:31:00PM -0400, Aditi Pai wrote:
> Ramit told me not to "top post," and I looked it up and I think I am doing
> that same thing again, so if I am let me know how to avoid that. This kind
> of discussion board is something I haven't interacted with before.

In your email program, just move the cursor (the linking line where you 
type) after each comment you want to reply to before answering the 
question.

If your email program won't let you do that, either 

1) use a different, better, email program (I can strongly recommend 
Thunderbird); or

2) apologise, but expect to still be (more, or less, gently) told off 
for top-posting.


> Steven, thank you for trying to help me. I thought my response to Bob was
> completely civil and you seem like a firey character, so I'll try to
> respond as evenly as I can to you too. Like I said before, I am on a
> learning curve, and the messages Emile and Ramit have sent me both had
> constructive criticism as to how to proceed with asking questions as well
> as awesome answers to my poorly-worded questions. The little side comments
> were not included. I don't mean to "waste your time" or Bob's apparently
> but asking that question led me to understand how to ask a better one. I am
> trying to improve and I've just started learning. Please don't be mean.

Nobody here is trying to be mean. If you think this was "firey" or 
mean, you should try asking questions on some of the C programming 
language forums.

But you have to understand, this is the first time you have been in the 
situation of having to ask questions you don't know how to put into 
words. But for us, it is about the millionth time somebody has come here 
asking for help but not giving us enough details that we can help.

Imagine that you are working at a burger restaurant, and somebody comes 
in and asks "I want that burger I had last month, you know, the one with 
the sauce that was so good", and either can't or won't tell you any 
more. You've got twenty different burgers on the menu and thirty 
different sauces, how can you possibly know which one the customer is 
talking about? You want to help, right, but you can't. Pretty 
frustrating, yeah, but you smile and do your best, because that's what 
you're paid for. So you ask them to describe the burger, and they say 
"I had it with fries and a Coke" like that helps.

Now imagine how frustrating it is the tenth time somebody has done it 
this week, and it's only Tuesday. AND YOU'RE A VOLUNTEER. You're not 
being paid, you're doing it for free, to help the community, but 
sometimes it seems like the community is made up of demanding, needy 
dumb-arses who couldn't find their own nose without a team of Sherpas 
and a map...

(No offence :)

Just as we should try to remember what it was like to be in your 
situation, so you (and others like you) should try to imagine what it is 
like to be in our shoes. We're not being paid, we're doing this for free 
out of a desire to help others. A little bit of snarkiness is 
just our way of letting off steam.

Forgive us the occasional grumpiness, and we'll forgive you the 
occasional stupid question.

I'll get back to your actual programming question in a moment.



-- 
Steven