[Tutor] New blog that has solution for python programs

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Fri, Jun 02, 2017 at 05:00:37PM -0700, Danny Yoo wrote:
> Legality is the lowest of bars.  We should aim higher.
> 
> I'm pretty sure that the listed sites should strongly prefer *not*  to have
> solutions available like this.
> 
> The more I think about this, the more I'm tending to say: don't do this.
> It may feel like charity, but the authors of the problem sets will not look
> at this kindly.

I don't think "what the authors might want" is the only factor here. 
Personally, I think these programming challenge sites probably do more 
harm than good, discouraging people that they're not good enough to be a 
programmer because they can't solve the (often exceedingly tricky) 
problems on their own. I think they're often dick-measuring contests, 
for elite programmers to show off and sneer at "lesser mortals" who 
can't solve the problems.

In the real world, nobody has to solve these sorts of problems under the 
constraints given. In real life programming, you get to look for 
existing solutions, you get to consult with your colleagues, pass ideas 
back and forth, etc. If you need a solution to X, and your colleague 
already solved it for another project, you say "Hey Fred, I'm stealing 
your code" and if Fred gets upset you talk to his project manager who 
tells Fred to cooperate.

(Well, that's the way it is in companies that are not dysfunctional.)

These problems are the very definition of Solved Problems. They have 
been solved thousands of times!

They're fine for people who *enjoy* this sort of challenge, but I 
believe that for every one of them, there are probably a hundred or a 
thousand programmers who do not enjoy these challenges, who are 
discouraged by them, but who would learn a lot from being able to read 
and re-use the solutions.

That's just my opinion. People may disagree.



-- 
Steve