[7] NETIQUETTE WHEN POSTING TO COMP.OBJECT.CORBA
(Part of the CORBA FAQ, Copyright © 1996-99)

[7.1] HOW CAN I FIND OUT ABOUT GENERAL NETIQUETTE SO I DON’T EMBARRASS MYSELF?

Key guidelines:

• Do not say, “Please respond by e-mail because I don’t normally read this newsgroup.” If you don’t have enough time for the newsgroup, don’t expect the newsgroup to have enough time for you.
• Do not post questions that are answered in the newsgroup’s FAQ. That’s like saying your time (to read the FAQ) is more valuable than the time of hundreds of others (to answer your question). Tres uncool. Read the FAQ first!
• Do not cross post your question to a big pile of newsgroups. Post to the newsgroup (singular) that best fits your question. If you don’t get an answer in the “right” newsgroup, post somewhere else but redirect follow-ups back to the “right” newsgroup.
• Do include a working e-mail address in your signature. If your “From:” address is not correct, please notify your system administrator. Until it’s fixed, add a Reply-To: line to your e-mail header that gives your correct e-mail address.

Many more general netiquette questions are answered in the newsgroup news.announce.newusers. This newsgroup contains many must-read articles for new users.

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[7.2] WHAT DOES IMHO MEAN? (OR IMO, IMNSHO, FWIW, OTOH, ETC.)?

Here’s a partial list of acronyms in alphabetical order:

• BTW = By the way
• FAQ = Frequently Asked Question
• FWIW = For what it’s worth
• FYI = For your information
• IMHO = In my humble opinion (egoless)
• IMNSHO = In my not-so humble opinion (a lot of ego)
• IMO = In my opinion (a little ego)
• KUTGW = Keep up the good work
• MYOB = Mind your own business
• OTOH = On the other hand
• RTFFAQ = Read the ___ FAQ
• RTFM = Read the ___ manual
• SO = Significant other (as in, “My SO and I went for a walk...”)

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[7.3] HOW DO I GET COMP.OBJECT.CORBA TO DO MY HOMEWORK PROBLEM FOR ME?

Shame on you!

Please do not post your homework questions to comp.object.corba.

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[7.4] WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I SEE SOMEONE ELSE POSTING A HOMEWORK PROBLEM?

[Recently created (12/1998). Click here to go to the next FAQ in the “chain” of recent changes]

When a slackard asks comp.object.corba to do their homework for them, answering their question is bad for them. Please don’t do it! It’s not good for them, it’s not good for the newsgroup, and it wastes your time. Plus it may encourage them to commit plagiarism. It’s just plain bad.

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[7.5] WHAT DO I DO IF SOMEONE ELSE POSTS A QUESTION THAT’S ALREADY IN THE FAQ?

Rather than reinventing the same answers to the same frequently asked questions over and over, it would be better if you pointed the questioner to the FAQ. For example, you could use something like the following template:

    Subject: It’s in the FAQ [was: Original_Subject_Goes_Here]

    > Original_Question_Goes_Here [...]

    This issue is covered in the CORBA FAQ.
    You can get the FAQ at:
        http://www.aurora-tech.com/corba-faq/

    Please read the FAQ.

If everyone chips in and points people to the FAQ, it will hopefully keep the signal-to-noise ratio on comp.object.corba down to a reasonable level, thereby preserving that valuable resource.

Notes:

1. It’s better if you don’t give them the location of the appropriate FAQ. E.g., don’t say, “Look at FAQ [10.3]” or “Look in section [10].” It’s the old give-them-a-fish vs. teach-them-to-fish idea.
2. It’s best to be polite. We’re hoping to can avoid “RTFM” or “RTFFAQ” euphemisms (or worse!).

Thanks for any help you can give in this matter.

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[7.6] WHAT MAKES A GOOD “SUBJECT:” LINE?

Be descriptive. For example, this is a good Subject: line:

• Good: Subject: Problem expressing an association in IDL

In contrast, these are bad Subject: lines:

• Bad: Subject: HELP
• Bad: Subject: CORBA problem
• Bad: Subject: SEX SEX SEX

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[7.7] HOW DO I POST A QUESTION ABOUT CODE THAT DOESN’T WORK CORRECTLY?

Whenever possible, try to give people everything they need to understand your code. For example, it would be ideal if a reader could recreate your situation. This means doing the best you can to:

1. Post minimal code — just enough to demonstrate the problem.
2. Post complete code — include any necessary interfaces, methods, etc.

Finally, it’s best if you post the tools you used (ORB vendor, operating system, etc.) and, if relevant, the exact error messages you received. As always, make sure your question isn’t already in the FAQ — use the subject index to check.

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[7.8] WHICH NEWSGROUP SHOULD I POST MY QUESTIONS?

Only post to comp.object.corba if your question has something to do with CORBA. For example, questions about general object-oriented design, C++ programming, specific operating systems (Windows NT / 95 / 3.x, UNIX, etc.) all belong on more appropriate newsgroups.

Newsgroups about miscellaneous object-oriented issues:

• comp.object is mostly general OO analysis and design issues. Note that this group’s FAQ contains an excellent introduction to OO along with an overview of OO terms and concepts.

Newsgroups about particular programming languages:

• comp.lang.c++ discusses the C++ programming language. It’s FAQ.
• comp.lang.c++.moderated is a moderated variant of comp.lang.c++ (the moderator’s job is to keep the signal-to-noise ratio higher than in comp.lang.c++).
• comp.std.c++ discusses the evolving ANSI/ISO C++ standard.
• comp.lang.smalltalk discusses the Smalltalk programming language.
• comp.lang.java.* discusses the Java programming language and environment.
• comp.lang.c discusses the C programming language.

Newsgroups about particular operating systems:

• comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.misc discusses software development for the Windows environment.
• comp.unix.programmer discusses software development for the UNIX environment.
• comp.unix.solaris discusses software development for the Solaris environment.
• comp.sys.mac.programmer.* and comp.sys.mac.oop.* discuss software development for the Macintosh environment.

Newsgroups about particular software development tools:

• comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.tools discusses the selection and use of tools for Windows software development.
• comp.os.msdos.programmer is mostly about language products, chiefly from Borland and Microsoft. Its FAQ is here and here.
• comp.os.msdos.programmer.turbovision is about Borland’s character-mode framework.
• gnu.g++.help is about the GNU C++ compiler (see also gnu.g++.bug for GNU C++ bug reports).

Other newsgroups:

• comp.graphics is about graphics programming in general.
• comp.sources.wanted is for getting source code for something you want.
• comp.programming is about general programming issues.

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[7.9] HOW DO I GET THE FAQS FOR A PARTICULAR NEWSGROUP?

Let me count the ways...

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions lists) are available 24-hours a day via:

• ftp or WWW: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/
• e-mail: send a message with the line “help” to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
• usenet: many FAQs are available in the newsgroup news.answers

Please, PLEASE do not send e-mail to us!

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[7.10] IN ADDITION TO THESE FAQS, WHAT OTHER USEFUL URLS MIGHT I BE INTERESTED IN?

• English version of the CORBA FAQ.
• Japanese version of the CORBA FAQ.
• Korean version of the CORBA FAQ.
• Archives of the CORBA-dev mailing list.
• HTML versions of all OMG defined IDLs.

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