Answering Questions

[Leslie Lamport]

It is gratifying to see all the questions about TLA+ on this group.

However, it worries me that so many of them are answered by Stephan

Merz.  Stephan does a great job of answering them, and we are all

grateful to him.  But depending so much on him is bad for two reasons:

It's not fair to him to have to do that much work, and depending so much

on him is not viable in the long term.

I would like to see other people answering more of the questions.  If

you think you know the answer to a question, don't be shy about

posting your answer.  If you're wrong, someone else can correct you,

and you and others will learn from your mistake.  Let's make this

group a group effort, not just a forum for asking questions of a few

old timers.

Leslie

[Curt Flowers]

I agree with Leslie but as I have been studying and absolutely love TLA+ it seems like such an advanced subject that is easy to get wrong. I struggle with it in the background but try to figure it out on my own as NOT to only ask questions and leave. Also, when someone has been doing something for so long, they may forget how much they understand vs newer people. What is basic to and advanced user (You and Stephan) is very advanced for newer users (me and others). While some do come just to ask questions, for me it seems hard to contribute as there are so many aspects to TLA+ that I haven’t even ventured into as my projects are smaller in nature or I simply don’t know how to apply more advanced methods to my projects. It may be a matter of not knowing how to contribute to others questions when I know or feel that I will likely be completely wrong/unhelpful. 

Eighty percent (probably more like 99%) of the topics I don’t even know what the base subject is. So, maybe your comment is more directed at more intermediate/advanced users of TLA+ and people with overall more coding knowledge. It feels that I would merely detract from the conversation therefore I stay silent and watch in the background.

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[Isaac DeFrain]

Leslie,

I completely agree! I try to answer questions and engage when I can. I do have to say that Stephan is often really quick to answer and I don’t feel I have anything to add to his answers in most cases. However, I intend to continue to engage in the sharing of knowledge here.

Thank you and Stephan for all your hard work.

Best,

Isaac 

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Isaac DeFrain

[Stephan Merz]

Hi Leslie,

thanks for your message. First of all, I believe that is only natural that I should try and pass on some of the things I've learnt about TLA+ to others. I just hope that nobody feels discouraged from answering a question whether I've reacted or not.

This being said, I fully agree that this group is here for all of us in the TLA+ community to help each other.

Stephan

[Clifford Heath]

I once found myself in Stephan's shoes (on another list) and I just applied a "wait a day" policy. Other folk stepped up, and I got to answer many fewer questions - or just to add a bit of extra info to another answer. I don't think it slowed discussion at all, and probably even enhanced it. 

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