Re: student question/ array

From: Larry Serflaten (serflaten_at_usinternet.com)
Date: 04/10/04 

Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 12:01:50 -0500

"Troy Scott mindspring.com>"
> Jim, maybe I didn't make myself clear.

Regaurdless of the problem, it will be better for all involved
if you ask your questions to your instructor.

Anyone you meet here will most likely not know what you
have been taught so far. So if they provide an answer that
uses something that has not been discussed in class, then
the instructor will know that you either did not do the work
yourself, or you already know the material and should be
getting 100% on all the quizes. For example, Jim suggested
he would use a database, probably not something you've covered
yet. I would think UDT's would work, but again, we can't
know what you know, or don't know.

One part of programming is learning the language that you
use to talk to the computer, another part is getting the
computer to do something you already know how to do.
There are things to learn in both those areas. So, when
someone gives you an answer to your question, you don't
get the benefit of figuring out how to tell the computer to
do what you want. You learn how somebody else gets the
computer to do what is required. But at this point in your
studies, learning how to put your thoughts into the language
of the computer may very well be part of the exercise.

If you go to your instructor, the s/he will know you are having
trouble and can find out if your trouble lies with understanding
the problem, or with translating what you know to the computer's
language. If you do not understand the question, if for example
you could not do nearly the same thing with pen and paper, then
the instructor should help you decipher what the question is.

But if you understand the question, and could solve the problem
yourself, but can't quite get the computer to do it, then the
instruct may step back and let you wrestle with that a little while.
That is a skill that has to be developed, and you develop it by
exercising it. If you go out to lift weights, you get no benefits
if there are people there lifting the weights for you, you have to
do the work to gain the benefit.

Also, if you, and several others are having trouble and the instructor
finds several from the class coming up with the same problem, then
s/he knows that subject needs to be better covered in class.

As you see, it really is better for the student to talk with their
instructor, and not get too much outside help. That being said,
many will help when you post the code you are working on, that
fails in some small way. When you have most of the work done
already, and just need a little nudge to get it to work right, then
providing a change to get it to work will be more educational to
you. It will be your design, and the small change made will help
you to see what was lacking in your design.

The posting you posted recently is more on the order of 'how
do I do it' but that is the area that you need to develop. You
have take what you could do yourself (with a pen and paper) and
translate that into a design that can be programmed into the
computer. If you fail to learn how to deal with that part of it now,
you may continue to struggle with it later, so it is generally best
just to let you work out your own design.

Just like talking, you first have to speak the words, and then have
to learn how to connect the words into sentences to convey your
own thoughts. That is something you have to learn, no one can
learn it for you, even if your parent are doing all while you learn
to speak. It is much the same way here. You have to learn how
to translate your ideas into a design that can be apllied using the
tools you have. They are ideas in your head, you have to learn
how to get them out into the real world. The way you do that
is by practice, practice, practice. You have to try something,
and when you learn that works, you move on, if it doesn't work
you find out why and try something else, etc. It really is a lot
like learning a foriegn language, things don't come out perfect
when you are just begining to learn, but they continue to get
better the more you continue to work at it.

LFS

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