Re: language spec newsgroup

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From: Jon Skeet [C# MVP] (skeet_at_pobox.com)
Date: 02/13/04 

Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 15:45:46 -0000

Nick Malik <nickmalik@hotmail.nospam.com> wrote:
> Personally, I oppose that.
>
> a) Most of the "buttons on forms in comboboxes" questions are perfectly
> valid questions on use of the .NET Framework.

Indeed they are... but they're not necessarily questions about a
specific language.

> b) You cannot divorce C# from the .NET Framework (there wouldn't be a lot
> left, would there? :-)

Yes you can. You can divorce (to a very large extent) the language from
the libraries - and indeed, that has been done in the language
specification, which mentions very few actual types. It would be far
from impossible to have a newsgroup which solely dealt with questions
about the language itself. The trouble, however, would be keeping out
off-topic posts.

As for whether or not there's a lot left - I think there's a signficant
amount left. For instance, topics raised recently:

o Constness
o Passing parameters by value or reference
o Derived interfaces increasing the "breadth" of a property (i.e. just
  a getter becoming getter and setter)
o What the compiler does with floating point constants (i.e. where
  exactly does float f = (float) 34.5d; get converted from double to
  single?)
o Upcoming Java language features vs C# features (current and upcoming)

There are some questions which *might* be appropriate to cross-post
between a language group and a framework group, and others (such as
singleton threadsafety) which might be appropriate to cross-post
between a language group and the CLR group.

A language-only group may well get relatively low (on-topic) traffic,
but I don't see that in itself as a major problem.

> c) Yes, traffic is high... I barely have the bandwidth for a quick graze
> over the list of questions and answers. That means finding something that
> interests you should be fairly easy, and the information flow is high. I
> also monitor the Biztalk newsgroup (not the beta). Now, that's a LOW volume
> newsgroup. I learn a lot more from this one.

Sure, and I love a high-traffic group too - but I respect the fact that
not everyone does.

> d) If someone has a question, they should have one forum to post it in that
> encompasses the subject area (within reason). If I think my problem is C#,
> it is usually a framework problem, and I have to solve it with a framework
> 'fix', then how would I know which forum to post to?

Ideally (IMO) there should be a newsgroup for framework questions posed
in C#, and a separate group for framework questions posed in VB.NET,
and then a separate group for the C# *language*, and another for the
VB.NET language. It wouldn't be hard to work out what went where.

> e) I see very very very few questions on this forum that are specific to the
> visual studio environment. Nearly all of the problems are C# or .NET
> Framework problems. So, if you create a new forum, or a subforum, you will
> get all of the questions from this one moving over there.

There's already a newsgroup for it - in fact a whole *set* of groups.
Search for groups containing the word "vsnet". Unfortunately people
don't tend to choose which group to post in very carefully.

> f) it is HARD to get a community going that is this active. Moving forums
> may be all that is required to fracture it, causing good posters and solvers
> to go to one or another of the commercially-sponsored forums. That would
> make the new forum far less valuable.

I don't believe that. I believe that the only problem with the idea is
that people always *do* post in inappropriate newsgroups, and that's
unlikely to change unless the groups become moderated (which I
certainly don't advocate). 

-- 
Jon Skeet - <skeet@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

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