Great, thanks! On Jun 2, 2017 10:26 PM, "Danny Yoo" <d...@hashcollision.org> wrote:
> Steven says: > > >> I don't think "what the authors might want" is the only factor here. > >> Personally, I think these programming challenge sites probably do more > >> harm than good, discouraging people that they're not good enough to be a > >> programmer because they can't solve the (often exceedingly tricky) > >> problems on their own. > > [cut] > > >> They're fine for people who *enjoy* this sort of challenge, but I > >> believe that for every one of them, there are probably a hundred or a > >> thousand programmers who do not enjoy these challenges, who are > >> discouraged by them, but who would learn a lot from being able to read > >> and re-use the solutions. > >> > >> That's just my opinion. People may disagree. > > > Hi Steven, > > Yes, that's a good point. I do need to be careful of myself: I have a > strong tendency to think in terms of black and white. > > Thanks for keeping me honest. > > > I think the kind and the quality of the problem is a big factor. If > it's of the vanilla, intro-to-programming variety, I think caution is > warranted. If it's a more difficult programming challenge problem, > then because it has enough density and complexity, the problem won't > just fall apart like cotton candy from discussing it, so that's ok > too. > > The source of the problem also contributes another dimension. If it's > coming from a book like Steven Skiena's "Programming Challenges", then > I think it's perfectly ok to share and reuse solutions. If it's > coming from some university homework problem set, I have some > reservations. > > > This topic is very much in the zeitgeist, by the way: > > https://thenextweb.com/dd/2017/05/30/lets-teach- > computer-science-students-to-cheat/#.tnw_YelJZVuo > > https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/29/us/computer-science- > cheating.html?_r=2 > > > > Thank you all for your views. I was hesitating for the same reason. Now > I'm > > clear that I shouldn't go for a blog that gives straightforward solution > > for the challenges. > > Meena, I do want to add: if you do something like this, focus on the > process rather than the end-solution, because that's the part that's > worthwhile. > > > Good luck! > _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
