My interpretation
When it comes to problem description, I try to avoid as much
reading between the lines as possible. Specially when it comes to regular expressions. Sure, I could have given him a regex
according to some interpretation. Would that have solved his
immediate problem? Perhaps, if my interpretation happened to
be right. Would he have learned anything, that is, would he
have been able to solve his next regex problem? Probably not.
No, instead I try him to think again. To look at the problem - poke at it, disect it, and formulate what he
really wants. Formulate a regexp problem properly, and
you have solved it for 90% - all you need to do is
the translation to an arcane language - but that's fairly
mechanical at that point.
In Dutch we have a saying "Zachte heelmeesters maken stinkende wonden", which translated means something like "Gentle healers make festering wounds".
Abigail
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No, instead I try him to think again.
How many times do you usually try a guy before a second thought comes to you?
When someone isn't completely clear, I find that making a sarcastic remark is very effective in promoting learning. Oh, and I have a lot of sayings that apply and I suspect you've heard many of them.
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No, instead I try [to get] him to think again.
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