When someone presents a "do my homework for me" question, particularly if they show no evidence of any effort on their part, please resist providing a direct answer. Instead, provide pointers, hints, and suggestions, and let them work to solve the problem themselves. Teach, don't solve.

I suggest RTFM replies to no-effort homework questions. (Better if you're a bit more polite, though.) Just point the student to the appropriate documentation and let them decide to either read it or whinge about how hard computers are. If you want to take the time to point out common mistakes, useful idioms, potential pitfalls, and so on, all the better, but keep in mind that they have profs and teaching assistants who are paid to provide that level of instruction. For example:

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Q: How do I add two dates?

A (short): Use Date::Calc.

A (long): Use Date::Calc. Watch out for time zone and DST issues.

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We don't necessarily need to consider every suspicious question for deletion... some of them spark interesting discussion.

--
F o x t r o t U n i f o r m
Found a typo in this node? /msg me
The hell with paco, vote for Erudil!

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