Poll: How to respond to homework questions

Andrew J Bromage ajb@spamcop.net
Thu, 28 Aug 2003 17:42:36 +1000


G'day all.

On Thu, Aug 28, 2003 at 11:25:43AM +0200, Ketil Z. Malde wrote:

> I suppose C is one way to do F, in particular by providing a working
> program so complex and opaque that no first-year could possibly have
> written it.

Uhm... yes.

> I'm not sure I care much for politesse.

Understood (and I'm as guilty of strategy (C) as anyone), however, it
can occasionally be hard to tell the difference between someone who is
"testing the waters" and someone who is just lazy, and it may be worth
giving people the benefit of the doubt.  In addition, ridiculing the
lazy may turn away people who may otherwise be tempted to ask for help
"properly".

> And hey, 'fun' is an important part of all this. :-)

Certainly!

Speaking of FAQs, this is quite good:

	http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Cheers,
Andrew Bromage