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Comment by user24 | Hacker News Reader

A similar story is on reddit right now - http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/hc9uf/homework_...

I have to say, I don't really see the humour in these sort of replies. It's not very polite or constructive, it's the sort of thing which could turn people away from programming, and makes geeks/programmers look bad. It's pretty antisocial. Why not spend the time actually helping the guy? Instead of showing off or taking the piss...

So I'm flagging this. I don't think encouraging this sort of behaviour does anyone any good.

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If the story is in fact real, I would say the student's "fault" here is in not going a bit farther than "oh my god, I just can't get it to work."

He/she could have written:

(1) What have they tried

(2) What errors were they getting (Compiler errors are ROUGH for someone just starting to code. That trivial missing semicolon can waste hours.)

(3) What ideas they might pursue to get it working

I've taught programming to several friends in the past (and I've also seen many other friends drop out of CS in frustration.) It seems that teaching just how to formulate such questions and walk through "what exactly does not work" is a critical step to CS education that is omitted in curricula out there.

Absolutely, and a reply to that effect would have been very helpful to the student in question, and to those following the conversation.

It's because usually these posts devolve into "do my homework for me" and the OP isn't interested in learning anything. In some universities, an intro to programming course is required for everyone now. The kids who know how to program aren't posting these questions, it's the students who are required to take the course for some other reason.

If the OP of the article posted some of his sample code, I could see helping him out more, but not just saying "I've tried and am giving up."

I agree it can be antisocial, but it's pretty humorous to me the response shows how creative programming can be.

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