;)

Matt

Precisely :-) What have you tried? :-)

Personally, I prefer nodes that have attempted to show their problem using code, but thats mostly because then its easier to see what it is the OP is getting at and thinking. That node looks clear enough that I would probably have answered it giving points to particular functions in the documentation that was needed, or with some psuedocode for the user to try.

Just recently I wondered on this same topic, and came to the conclusion that Perl Monks is not *just* about helping people code, some people come here just looking for / asking about where they can find code to help them with a particular problem, not wanting to code themselves, yet we tend to yell at such people as well.. Why? Some nice hints to go look in the code section are all that is needed..

C.

It all depends on the post and the poster. There was a thread recently where the OP was asking if something is possible. I answered with a code snippet. The next response was "What have you tried?" My feeling was that the OP wasn't asking "How" ... the question is "Is this possible?" and there isn't going to be code involved in that question.

Other questions may involve design or requirements gathering ... having a requirement that states "Thou shalt provide code." is simply overgeneralizing and onerous. If code is warranted, then someone will say "What have you tried?"

Remember - you can show a man what a fishing pole looks like, but you can't force him to learn how to fish.

I'm one of the three code-posters. But, that being said, I agree with you! The thing is: That particular moment, I had some free time and figured, I'd find a Perl exercise to work on -- maybe learn something. So, in my eyes, I'm actually the benificiary. That the OP got something out of it is mere coincidence.

One thing in particular that really kinda rubbed me was that *way* down in the thread, the poster indicated some pretty siginificant changes to the spec. Kinda rude, IMO to ask for stranger's advice and not put effort into a clear question, but that's the way it goes I guess....

One thing in particular that really kinda rubbed me was that *way* down in the thread, the poster indicated some pretty siginificant changes to the spec. Kinda rude, IMO to ask for stranger's advice and not put effort into a clear question, but that's the way it goes I guess....

Yeah, it's only supposed to be clients that supply moving targets and bad spec :-)

I don't care too much about wheter people want some homework done or not. If I can help 'em, I do (not too often, for usually people help me). The code posted is going to help them anyways, for at least they have to copy and paste it and who knows what they might learn from looking at it (albeit even brief). So, I won't yell Homework, don't help (anymore). Not because I don't want to lose XP (been here too long to care about that anymore), but because I still like to see the TIMTOWTDI answers given by others.

In fact, not posting code might even be more gooder™. That way, the answers will not be based on the already given (and perhaps horrible) code and TIMTOWTDI will reign supreme.

To conclude: don't be trigger happy and scream bloody murder when in fact you can also help someone out (even if it's a homework cheat), and learn from the other replies.

Trigger-happy? - -
but
doing a student's homework? also - -

I may be a bit on the sharp side when confronted by a post that seems to me (YMMV) suspicious, because I don't like the encourage the notion that we're here merely to serve as the student's cribsheet/plagiarism source nor that we're "dumb grownups ripe for exploitation" (because giving the immature -- of any age -- support for any notion that others are suitable objects for exploitation merely reinforces the inclination to exploit rather than explore).

dragonchild refers below (in a backhanded way, ++) to another of (my) reasons for reluctance to solve (as distinguished from help with) homework: Giving the solution to the student who's made no effort is -- IMO -- unlikely to encourage that student to study and learn what s/he's been given.

That said, castaway's point that there is no rule against helping with homework is not just well-made; it's probably also as it should be. pboin's search for an exercise is a splendid example of 'why?'.