Fleshing out the post a wee bit more

Needs whittling and rounding and stuff, perhaps, but I think I'm mostly
there. A post-dinner top-to-bottom read is in now in order before I finally
decide if I like it or not.
This commit is contained in:
Dave Pearson
2023-01-08 17:51:32 +00:00
parent a3601cf0be
commit e12d1f8bbb

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@@ -84,6 +84,15 @@ in the moment but fades away pretty quickly. It's like knocking on a
friend's door to see if they're in. If they're not in, you might leave them friend's door to see if they're in. If they're not in, you might leave them
a note, which is sort of like going to... a note, which is sort of like going to...
!!! note
As a slight aside here: sometimes people will pop up in Discord, ask a
question about something that turns out looking like a bug, and that's
the last we hear of it. Please, please, **please**, if this happens, the
most helpful thing you can do is go raise an issue for us. It'll help us
to keep track of problems, it'll help get your problem fixed, it'll mean
everyone benefits.
### GitHub ### GitHub
On the other hand, if you have a question or need some help or something On the other hand, if you have a question or need some help or something
@@ -199,6 +208,20 @@ comes after you to acknowledge if it worked or not. That way a future
help-seeker will know if the answer they're reading stands a chance of being help-seeker will know if the answer they're reading stands a chance of being
the right one. the right one.
#### Accept that Textual is zero-point software (right now)
Of course the aim is to have every release of Textual be stable and useful,
but things will break. So, please, do keep in mind things like:
- Textual likely doesn't have your feature of choice just yet.
- Might accidentally break something (perhaps pinning Textual and testing
each release is a good plan here?).
- Might deliberately break something because we've decided to take a
particular feature or way of doing things in a better direction.
Of course it can be a bit frustrating a times, but overall the aim is to
have the best framework possible in the long run.
### Don't... ### Don't...
Okay, now for a bit of old-hacker finger-wagging. Here's a few things I'd Okay, now for a bit of old-hacker finger-wagging. Here's a few things I'd
@@ -260,3 +283,37 @@ idea:
- The next seeker-of-help gets to miss out on your question and the answer. - The next seeker-of-help gets to miss out on your question and the answer.
If asked and answered in public, it's a record that can help someone else If asked and answered in public, it's a record that can help someone else
in the future. in the future.
#### Doubt your ability or skill level
I suppose this should really be a do rather than a don't, as here I want to
encourage something positive. A few times I've helped people out who have
been very apologetic about their questions being "noob" questions, or about
how they're fairly new to Python, or programming in general. Really, please,
don't feel the need to apologise and don't be ashamed of where you're at.
If you've asked something that's obviously answered in the documentation,
that's not a problem; you'll likely get pointed at the docs and it's what
happens next that's the key bit. If the attitude is *"oh, cool, that's
exactly what I needed to be reading, thanks!"* that's a really positive
thing. The only time it's a problem is when there's a real reluctance to use
the available resources. We've all seen that person somewhere at some point,
right? ;-)
## Conclusion
So, that's my waffle over. As I said at the start: this is my own personal
thoughts on how to get help with Textual, both as someone whose job it is to
work on Textual and help people with Textual, and also as a FOSS advocate
and supporter who can normally be found helping Textual users when he's not
"on the clock" too.
What I've written here isn't exhaustive. Neither is it novel. Plenty has
been written on the general subject in the past, and I'm sure more will be
written on the subject in the future. I do, however, feel that these are the
most common things I notice. I'd say those dos and don'ts cover 90% of *"can
I get some help?"* interactions; perhaps closer to 99%.
Finally, and I think this is the most important thing to remember, the next
time you are battling some issue while working with Textual: [don't lose
your head](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdYvKF9O7Y8)!