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Instead of posting only the code, you should post the compiler error as well. And please edit the post to format the code section properly.
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Is it just me or not but in my day we didn't ask for help at the first hurdle and things were hard then, no internet, remember compiling 16 bit code for the large memory model? We had to find the answers ourselves.
It strikes me it is too easy today to throw an ill-formed/undefined question at CP and expect an answer! What happened to research? What happened to thinking out a problem till you got the the very nub of the issue; because once you know the right question to ask, the answer almost suggests itself.
I mean, linked lists, writing data to a file? Thats really simple stuff that anyone studying a programming course should e able to work out for themselves!
==============================
Nothing to say.
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Well, you're right in that it's too easy to just shoot a question into the great Internet Void (tm) and sit back and wait for an answer. One of the things that kill me is the number of questions that claim to be "urgent" yet they're willing to wait for who known how many hours for somebody to notice their question on CP or anywhere else. If it's "urgent" you should be researching it yourself.
Personally, I blame the instructors (since apparently many of these questioners are in classes somewhere). Linked Lists, Reading / Writing Files, this is all Computer Science 1 stuff yet there are no apparent "cookbook answers" or "class tutorials" on this stuff that explains it more fully. You'd think that problems with this stuff would be a predictable outcome so instructors should prepare to instruct on the topic.
And maybe it's the proliferation of "online universities" where there is no physical contact with a "teaching staff" who can provide personalized instruction / answers. Back in the 60's, we had professors who lectured and Teaching Assistants who held other classes and a group of top students (Program Advisors) that sat at desks in the Comp Sci Department and helped fellow students through the homework assignments. I did that job for a couple of semesters. Who provides that service now? Code Project and other such sites.
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Chuck O'Toole wrote: Back in the 60's, we had professors who lectured
Back in the 60's I was learning programming on the job from my peers, and reading the manuals.
Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff
I'm sitting here giving you a standing ovation - Len Goodman
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Ah yes, the good old days when my bedtime reading was the IBM 7090 Principles of Operation manual  Back then, Computer Science wasn't it's own discipline but fell under the Math Department (they didn't know where else to put it). And OJT was the only way anybody got any training.
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Richard MacCutchan wrote: Back in the 60's I was
and I was in diapers, learning how to walk and talk.
Independent ACN Business OwnerMake toll free long distance calls from your smart phone with ACN Mobile World. When connected via wifi, calls will not use any of your minutes or data, nor will there be any roaming charges.
Certain conditions apply. See my website for details.
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
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That was not univote worthy, countered.
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Back in the 60's my mother was being born. So yeah.
I think that this issue is not only disturbing regarding the fact that people shoot questions on the internet void hoping for an answer to come from the beyond, but as in some cases in which I worked with "experienced" developers which had to ask me, an "I have been programming as a job for 6 months" student how to retrieve items to a .net list.
It's everywhere, and its spreading fast. You better cover up!
- Arthur Souza
www.lotusrpg.com.br
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arthurfsouza wrote: I worked with "experienced" developers which had to ask me, an "I have been programming as a job for 6 months" student how to retrieve items to a .net list.
I get the point you are trying to make, but just because a person is experienced, that does not automatically mean they are experienced in the same disciplines as you.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"Show me a community that obeys the Ten Commandments and I'll show you a less crowded prison system." - Anonymous
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I find the existence of experienced .net developers that don't know how to retrieve an item from a generic List<t> much more disturbing than that of students that just throw questions on the internet expecting answers from the beyond.
Or perhaps one evolves (using that word loosely) into another.
- Arthur Souza
www.lotusrpg.com.br
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In my college course, the instructor was around for class, then vanished, leaving 2 or 3 of us to help the rest.
How I wish Google had existed then.
I need an app that will automatically deliver a new BBBBBBBBaBB (beautiful blonde bimbo brandishing bountiful bobbing bare breasts and bodacious butt) every day.
John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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I went back for new training in '04. The instructors were leaving most in the dust, while for me, they were clearly describing something I'd already read in the text books handed out before classes started. It was semi-helpful review for me because I'd cracked open the books and read them as much as I could before class started. I've attended lectures where that person left me in the dust, because I didn't know there was research I could have done ahead of time. In both cases, they weren't of much help to me because I'm more of a visual learner.
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That seems a bit unfair - I remember sitting in classes where the instructor explained the material, we had text books, but still some folks would ask for someone to explain what had been explained to them.
There will always be idiots who think that programming is a good job, and they should be able to do it well, and that if they can't, it is someone elses fault.
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Erudite_Eric wrote: Is it just me or not but in my day we didn't ask for help at the first hurdle
and things were hard then, no internet, remember compiling 16 bit code for the
large memory model? We had to find the answers ourselves.
First because there were very few resources.
Second because it was often difficult to access those resources.
Third there were far fewer people doing it.
Erudite_Eric wrote: It strikes me it is too easy today to throw an ill-formed/undefined question at
CP and expect an answer! What happened to research? What happened to thinking
out a problem till you got the the very nub of the issue; because once you know
the right question to ask, the answer almost suggests itself.
Based on that argument every doctor would learn solely by reading books and experimenting.
The reason people didn't use resources long ago was because they didn't exist long ago. The reason that they use them now is because they exist now.
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jschell wrote: Based on that argument every doctor would learn solely by reading books and
experimenting.
Call me old fashioned but I wouldn't wanted to be treated by a doctor that got his answers off of WebMD or other Medical BBS. Who knows what quality of answer they'd get there.
Nope, I want doctors taught by experienced professors in University Medical Schools, preferably ones attached to real hospitals so the students can do "rounds" with actual doctors. That's how they learn.
That's the analagous discussion to what's here. Would you hire a programmer who said "I learned everything I know from Code Project"? I wouldn't. Have I picked up things here or learned something I didn't know, sure I have. But CP is the *last* place I come to, not the first.
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Chuck O'Toole wrote: But CP is the *last* place I come to, not the first
Amen!
Why is common sense not common?
Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level where they are an expert.
Sometimes it takes a lot of work to be lazy
Please stand in front of my pistol, smile and wait for the flash - JSOP 2012
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Many hobbyists are more skilled and/or knowledgeable in what they do than professionals.
Why? The hobbyist always loves what he does. The professional loved it once, but now it's just a job that gets bread on the table.
Of course there's many great professionals too, but I wouldn't trust a professional more than I would trust a fanatic hobbyist.
I learned almost everything I know from CP and I spent last saturday fixing code from a Microsoft Certified *insert some titles here*.
And it isn't the first time I fixed her code either.
It's an OO world.
public class Naerling : Lazy<Person>{
public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}
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If a doctor posted an 'urgentz pls' post I would go find another doctor.
Actually what they use is a vast library of books and material to check symptoms causes and cures.
What we did in our day was use books too, and work it out ourselves by trying things out.
It seems that experimentation today is dead.
==============================
Nothing to say.
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Erudite_Eric wrote: Actually what they use is a vast library of books and material to check symptoms
causes and cures.
Well, not really! I have done and still do a lot of programming, but my 'day job' was (I am retired) as an Anesthesiologist and Intensivist, and I was generally reckoned a pretty good one. In my speciality, you may have time to research problems you anticipate, but you frequently don't have time to research the unexpected ones, which are often more challenging. The skill comes in being able to anticipate more than 'the average bear' and particularly in rapidly extracting from your prior experiences and/or previous reading/learning the material that is most relevant to the current problem. In less acute specialities, there is more time to think, but putting the gestalt of the patient's presentation (not just signs and symptoms, but also past history and personal circumstances) together into a picture that leads to diagnosis and treatment involves much more than "checking symptoms causes and cures" in "a vast library". Medicine is still at least 40% Art.
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This is same "problem" that computation has, CS courses teach you something, but you have to develop your art alone, by coding a great massive number of hours. Like a pilot or a doctor who have seen much in his life. Computation is not enginnering, its 50% enginering and 50% art.
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Touchè
I was just thinking last night that I miss the days of UseNet. One learned fairly quickly from some really brutal responses what was and was not acceptable. Moreover, flame-wars and grilling the truly inept were seen as sport. But now, since we all have to play nicely the standard has stooped to that of the lowliest competitor - bring back the days of measure-up or be chewed-up and spat-out!
The sum total of the documentation/help I had available when starting out were: The help file for Turbo Pascal 6.0, the help file for Borland c++ 3.1 and (the one I spent most time with) the commented output of Sourer, a dissasembler whose serial number I still recall now some 19 years after first getting it B309868-YTHT
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Yeah.
When I was learning on the job you couldnt go ask a senior guy a question unless you had it formed really well, had investigated all the angles and really come to the crux of the problem. If not you would get chewed up badly. As you should be.
==============================
Nothing to say.
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Agree fully with this - it's kinda what I came here to say. WE have caused this problem by allowing it to continue, and even some people (Stack Overflow) are making money off this problem. On Stack Overflow, you can't say "dumb question, moron, RTFM" as it's against the community guidelines for what's acceptable. So, they've made it a rule that you have to be an idiot to ask a question on the site.
The problem comes when you have a real question that you really need the help of the community. I have several unanswered questions on Stack Overflow because of that. It's not a site where you can ask the hard questions, and if you do, you're ignored because it's not easy to "get points" by providing a thoughtful answer, it requires work, and when you can get points on the site by doing Google searches on behalf of other users, there isn't much motivation for people to want to improve themselves by exploring the difficult stuff.
We need to be able to say "FGI" to people and CLOSE the question when it's stupid. AND, we, as a community, should let the idiots flounder. When someone asks a dumb question and you help them, you are perpetuating the problem. If we can't flame them, we could at least IGNORE them. Please.
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In Quick Answers you have the ability to close questions where the poster has made no attempt to allow others to help them. This feature will be added to the discussion forums.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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Well on one hand, the group of people here are very helpful, and I consider you all to be the old school guard, the last remaining source of quality help left for this subject.
Getting quality help is so hard now days, because there are very few people left that are willing to spend some time giving back to the community. I know there are thousands of well qualified coders in this country, but I have no clue what they do with their spare time. I'm always searching for programmers here where I live, but I can't really find any.
On the other hand, there are thousands of entry level programmers here where I live, and even more worldwide online jam packing other forums to the point of saturation. About 10% of the decent questions get answered, and the other 90% just sit there and fade away, because the question makes no sense.
I suspect it boils down to economics, in which they sold a program really cheap, and are not able to deliver a working prototype to get paid. So they get hostile and start making extreme demands. I see that spilling over to CJ now on the Web Development forum, and suspect it may get worst.
I know one day in the future, there won't be enough masters left to teach the students, because demand for programs now it at an all time high.
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