[H-GEN] Which is better?

[Matthew Sellers]

On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 18:43:20 +1000
Greg Black <gjb at gbch.net> wrote:

>On 2004-04-26, Matthew Sellers wrote:
>
>> Gregs answer was a deflection. While I am not disputing that his point is
>> correct, the answer was not very useful.
>
>That depends on the student.  I never had the misfortune to
>study CS at university, but I did have to learn it.  While I was
>learning, I too asked a similar question.  The person I asked
>gave me a similar answer to the one I gave here.  I found that
>answer most enlightening.  I never assume that people who ask
>questions are much more stupid than I am, so I tend to think
>that answers that I have found helpful at a similar stage of my
>learning might be helpful to others.

It is to this that I am referring. Everyone learns a subject in a different
manner depending upon 
	* the knowledge they already possess
	* the relative importance they place on the concepts within the subject
	* the way the subject is presented
	* the techniques they personally apply to learning
	* any number of other things

People normally ask the questions that they need to know in order to make the
concepts fall into place in their mind. Since you can't see see the conceptual
framework that the questioner is trying to fill in, you run the risk of leaving
them frustrated if you do not answer the question that was asked. 

Of course you always run this risk. Hopefully they know how to ask the right
questions.

>
>> Something that I believe in strongly is that when a student asks a question,
>> it is THAT question that should be answered.
>
>That depends on the circumstances.  If I were his teacher at the
>university, then I would agree -- although I would still want to
>make the point I made, as it's still the real answer.

By all means make your point. By itself it is only half an answer however.

>But when somebody, student or not, asks a question on a mailing
>list, the rules are quite different.  Nobody on the list is
>*owed* the answer they want.

I agree. If you don't feel like answering them then don't hit the send
button.

>> Why do first years get fixated by efficiency? Because their lecturers
>> often ignore it entirely due to it's relative unimportance. This omission
>> calls attention to it as it is something that many assume is central to
>> programming.
>
>I don't know how true this is, but it seems a bit unlikely to
>me.

To clarify my statement, I was referring to the context of an initial
programming course. Efficiency (i.e. how to evaluate it) is generally taught in
the following subjects. (First get it right.)

>I do know that I wish that lots of modern programmers did care a
>whole lot more about efficiency.  
>
>I just started OpenOffice on a
>Celeron-2200 with 1 GB of memory and it took over 10 seconds
>before it was ready to allow me to start to interact with it.

But it is responsive once it is up, is it not.

>That is absurd and those programmers really should have spent
>some time to make it respond in a reasonable amount of time.  It
>seems as though people care in first year, but lose all interest
>by the time they get to work.

Perhaps.

Cheers

-- 
Matthew Sellers