I'd like to see if there can be a difference made between types of homework questions.

The obvious type is the OP saying "Here's the homework problem. Please answer it for me." I don't think that anyone is going to say this should not be deleted.

However, there's the OP saying "I don't know where to start." or "I'm looking for references to read." or "Please explain why this works." This, to me, is more tutoring than doing someone's HW for them. Just because the OP is asking for help with a homework question doesn't mean that the thread should be deleted.

For example, there is a node today (which prompted this post) regarding the Fisher/Yates shuffling algorithm. It was obvious that the OP was doing some HW regarding Fisher/Yates. In fact, s/he even said that s/he was writing a paper on the topic. And, consequently, diotalevi considered the node for deletion. (This is, in no way, a flame of diotalevi's actions. He was completely within his rights as a PMonk in good standing to make that consideration.)

However, the thread sparked a lot of good discussion on RNGs and algorithmic analysis in general. That kind of thread is one of the many reasons why PM is a good resource for Perl development and programmer improvement. I have learned more about programming theory than Perl development on this website, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Perl, while an amazing language, isn't the be-all-end-all of programming languages. And, the most powerful tool is useless without the knowledge that features exist, like functional programming or some of the more esoteric uses of hashes. The major resource here, for professional developers, is the access to developers, like tilly, tye, and Abigail-II, who are willing to expose others to new paradigms and new concepts. Many of those lessons, however, only occur in the context of "homework" threads, because those are the subjects that tend to spark discussion. Then, more threads are spawned as monks want to continue the discussion.

I guess my point is that I wanted to raise awareness of "good HW threads" vs. "bad HW threads".

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.

In reply to Homework threads aren't necessarily evil by dragonchild

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.