[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: [OT] C programming, variable size array



On Sat, Dec 13, 2003 at 12:31:00AM -0600, Alex Malinovich wrote:
> On Fri, 2003-12-12 at 15:00, Aryan Ameri wrote:
> > On Friday 12 December 2003 22:38, Alex Malinovich wrote:
> > > On Fri, 2003-12-12 at 14:04, Wesley J Landaker wrote:
> > > > On Friday 12 December 2003 11:38 am, Aryan Ameri wrote:
> > > > > Hi There:
> > 
> > > > Hmmm... sounds a lot like a homework problem... =)
> > >
> > > Yes, it does... :)
> > 
> > 
> > See, this is what I was afraid of. I have some question in my mind, and 
> > yes it is related to my studies, but it is not a homework. I can't 
> > locate my instructor for two days, cause she is ill or something. Since 
> > google and reading archive doesn't reveal anything, I say, well give it 
> > s shot, and post a OT to debian users. And I indicate that, for god's 
> > sake, this is nota homework.
> > 
> > And then everyone is like, hey, this is a troll ! this is homework, ...
> --snip--
> > Cheers everyone, and don't be so pessimist when someone asks a 
> > programming question. It might indeed not be his homwork.
> 
> My intention was not to suggest that you are a troll or that there is
> anything wrong with asking for help with your homework. I was just
> stating that your question sounded a lot like one that would be asked as
> part of a homework assignment. If that were the case, I would still have
> gladly helped you, though I certainly would not have done the assignment
> for you.
> 
> If you read the second part of my post, you will have noticed that I
> commended you for looking into this problem and that, by tackling it,
> you'll be putting yourself well ahead in your studies. If you have any
> further questions, don't hesitate to ask. The people on this list are
> really all extremely helpful when given a chance. :)

I also wondered. I thought it sounded a lot like a question that was
prompted by a homework assignment in a CS course. And for me also,
that does not mean I think helping with homework is somehow wrong or
cheating. But, from my experience as a univerisity professor, I know
that the 'rules of the game' are rather different for homework than
they are for the real world. A homework problem that is of the form "
construct a system that does foo using a bar ", cannot be answered
with a discussion about how stupid it is to use a bar for a foo
system. And, in fact, that may be exactly the point that the prof. is
hoping to make. Bars are the wrong way to do foos. So, it is
legitimate to ask: Do you want help with a real world problem or with
a homework problem? In both cases, one should get help, but help given
under the assumption that there is a real world problem, may not be
helpful at all for homework.

But maybe, they are not so different. In the 'real world', software
people are often told to figure out how to solve some problem without
considering any changes in corporate policy, such as 'we are a Windows
shop'.

-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@peakpeak.com    



Reply to: