Programmer's Hostility Towards Beginners

[Joseph Bento]

I think I'd better include the text of the email I sent to an  
individual on the PIC list:

Hello ******,

We have corresponded from time to time in the PIC Microcontroller list.

I came across your web page quite by accident while searching for some  
material.  I'll plan on bookmarking your pages and spending some more  
time.

I am still very much a beginner in programming.  I am a professional  
electronics technician by trade, but that has involved mostly building  
engineering prototypes or servicing equipment.  I'm currently  
attempting to learn C as well as assembly via a few books and online  
materials.   I'll need to concentrate on a particular chip to do my  
experimenting.  Right now, I have a few different PICS courtesy of  
Microchip's samples program.  I chose chips for my samples that were  
used in projects I wish to build.  I do surface mount assembly under a  
magnifier, and I hope to add some programming to my skills.

One of the primary things I want to build is clocks, particularly  
Nixie tube clocks.  I've seen so many neat examples online, and many  
include their code with the schematics.  I want to understand that  
code, be it in assembler or C and learn to modify and add my own  
functionality to the circuit.

My primary computer is a MacBook, and you've likely seen my posts in  
the list about configuring the free Hi-Tech compiler, etc.  Perhaps  
I'm getting ahead of myself, as I'm not certain I'm ready for these  
tools yet.  Of course if necessary, I can boot into Windows XP and use  
MPLAB / MPASM.

Thanks for your informative web pages.  If you can offer any  
suggestion for learning the programming, please do.  I'm essentially  
at ground zero as far as programming is concerned.  :-)

MVG,

Joe

The reply I received wasn't terribly friendly, and upset me a bit -  
which led to my post here on AMRAD. I thought I had written a friendly  
note.  The individual did have a full PIC tutorial on his website, so  
I didn't think my note out of line.  I'm very careful about what I  
post to a list, precisely because of the newbie factor.  The PIC list  
does have a searchable archive, so I do search prior to asking a  
question.  However, the response I received from the above email  
wasn't the first incident.  Admittedly, there are plenty of friendly  
folk out there as well.

I'm not certain I want to start over with a new platform.  We use  
Microchip's PICs at work.  I program them through MPLAB with the  
provided hex file or even compile with PIC18 through MPLAB with the  
provided C source from our engineers.  I want to learn enough to  
understand the code that I'm burning into the chips.  Also, since I'm  
also a ham and electronics hobbyist, I'd like to develop my own apps.   
Perhaps someday code the equivalent  of the old Curtis keyer chip on a  
PIC.  The engineers at work are somewhat helpful, but work is not the  
time or place to pursue a hobby interest in programming.

All the tools I currently have for the PIC were free, including a  
couple different C compilers that only are limited by the size of the  
program.  Some are even reasonably priced if I learn enough to advance  
beyond the 2k limitation.

I'll certainly look into the other links provided.  Good tools and  
tutorials are always a good thing.

73,
Joe, N6DGY
Pleasant Grove, UT



On Jul 6, 2008, at 8:09 PM, Robert E. Seastrom wrote:

> What mo said, particularly with the links that include connections to
> the Arduino and other AVR stuff; Atmel got it right by making their
> development environments open and giving them away for free, and the
> Arduino stuff is just a ball - in less than 30 minutes you'll be up
> and running and making LEDs blink and everything, without the PITA
> factor of trying to figure out fuse settings and all that other "fun"
> stuff.
>
> That said, as someone who's on the other end of this on a semi-regular
> basis in the IP network engineering arena, be sure you choose
> carefully where you're going to ask known newbie questions.  There are
> appropriate fora (LadyAda hosts some) for asking super simple
> questions, but some random software developer's in-box is not the
> right place, and it's awfully easy to get a little snippy if you are
> getting emailed out-of-scope questions on a regular basis.  I'm not
> defending the curt replies, just suggesting that if you're looking for
> maximum satisfaction, try to avoid doing the equivalent of posting
> "how do I wire up my CB radio and can I use this here coat hanger as
> an antenna?" questions to a ham radio group.  You'll be happier with
> the results.
>
> -r