[Mapserver-users] My newbi experience

[Jenu Abraham]

Hi guys,
This in regards with creating a separate mailing list for newbie’s.

I'll tell straight away it’s not going to be a good idea as it will require 
more effort by volunteers to help them out.

Give more help in the tutorials to newbie’s and they will learn on their 
own.

I started with mapserver 2 months back and hadn’t even known of a term GIS. 
I got a great deal of help from a lot of people because everybody was there 
and some had experienced the same problems I had faced.

I want to share some problems I faced from the tutorials that resulted in me 
turning to the mailing list for help.
•	The mapserver tutorial needs to be a little more detailed. The examples 
are GREAT but sometimes no explanation as to how something was done. 
Sometimes the examples have so subtle but important visual or functional 
differences that it’s hard to figure what the tutorial is trying to teach. 
It should tell specifically what to look for.
•	At least introduce advanced terms in the tutorial even if they are not 
explained, so that newbie’s can look it up in the wiki as they advance.  E.g 
the concept of “virtual spatial data”

Finally I would add, everybody should contribute to the mapserver wiki with 
common problems faced and the solution found. And everybody who can help 
should reply to help the newbies out as mentors.

When I came here, there was hardly any help for win 2003 users in the wiki. 
I had a hard time figuring things out through the tight security features in 
win 2003. But I do take a little time out to post it in the wiki section 
what I faced so that others find things easier and I do try to help people 
out if I see them facing the same problem I faced.

It’s our mapserver world, and we should be its evangelists, from the 
youngest to the oldest. A divided kingdom cannot stand.

That’s all folks
Take care

Jenu Abraham

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Movies - Trailers, showtimes, DVD's, and the latest news from Hollywood! 
http://movies.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200509ave/direct/01/