[Tutor] Answers to homework assignments? No!

[Danny Yoo]

> [Code]
>
> here is another solution; it's a bit nearer to the imperative one.  It
> uses reduce with a default value (it wil also be a bit faster than the
> first one).

[solution cut]


Hi Karl,


I know this post is preachy, but it's something that I need to say: if you
think that someone's asking a question because it's a homework assignment,
and if you realy want to help that person, please don't give direct
solutions.


In this case, Chris has explictely stated that it's homework, so we don't
even have to guess.  It's homework, and most online communities will treat
such questions, for the most part, as out-of-bounds:

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


Chris is having problems with the assigment because there's an obstacle
somewhere in his knowledge.  The best thing we can do for him is to
identify those obstacles, and show him good climbing techniques that apply
to more than that single problem instance.


But to just skylift him by helicopter and drop him across doesn't help him
in the long run.  In fact, it does him great harm.


I personally do get excited myself by questions, so much that that I
occasionally blurt out an answer, too.  But most of the time, I try to
resist and to keep John Holt's "How Children Fail" in mind:

    http://educationreformbooks.net/failure.htm


It is not cruel to not give an immediate answer to a question.



Talk to you later!