This is a topic that gets asked a lot so maybe we should collaboratively build some guidelines, I could set up a google docs file that could be collaboratively edited, somebody could o a wiki etc. Or we could bring up a thread.
The thing is we should need to describe a few key things.
That scripting in maya is like using maya, if you know one you know the other even if you dont know the syntax. And vice versa even if you know the syntax but have no idea of how maya is worked you will fail miserably.
Separation of concepts.
nodes, how they work what they do. How the are integral part of using maya. And how they are not scripts. Likewise some guide to the expression node. On thet note somebody could take the time to write a python node that accepts arbitrary python into itself (yeah it works not a biggie).
GUI, how may separates the gui from all of the udnerlying stuff, how ae is built. However we may want to defeer this abit snce the qt interface of maya 2011 is going to bring some steep changes and teake ssoe time to digest.
Script, purpose of scripting, how its supposed to build dg stuff etc. precesses
API a guide to transitioning onto this level possibly links onto subjects one needs to know before embarking etc.
A guide to people who already know programming, this seems to be a big problem since being a programmer doesn't mean you know how to program stuff for maya.
No MEL versus Python versus c++ its moot they are either separate things or the same thing depending on how you look at it. I mean if you know hoe to script in mel you SHOULD be able to transition to python scripting in no time. If you cant then its highly likely you didnt understand scripting in first place.
Section for different philosophical approaches.
Anybody up to it?