In general I'd agree with you, except that it takes more time to write down the approach to the solution clearly than to provide the code. This may seem at odds with intuition, but I guess more experienced programmers/problem solvers than myself will agree.

There's another point to consider: often a solution to a problem comes as a "flash of inspiration" rather than a consicious process. In such cases I don't know how to explain the path to the solution, it just appears before the mind's eye.

But yes, you certainly have a very valid point and maybe we should make the effort to emphasize problem solving approaches rather than provide just a piece of code that works (or should work ;-)
I'll try...

Just my 2 cents, -gjb-


In reply to Re: Solution Approach by gjb
in thread Solution Approach by artist

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