Originally Posted by
galvadon
I was under the impression I'd spelled it out, but okay. I didn't "give him an assignment," I pasted code for reversing a string, which is part of the assignment, which isn't "helping him cheat" it's giving him an example that "works" (whether it's "correct" is absolutely debatable, since "correct" as it's being used is still relatively vague), an example, if given to me, would've resulted in some form of a structured walkthrough which would've resulted in me learning what I was doing wrong. If not, I would probably have gone to the teacher who would've essentially told me how to do it by giving me examples - which is what I did. My post was not a permission slip to plagiarize, regardless of how possible my post made plagiarism.
Except it was a permission slip to plagiarize. Given that you wanted to show him how to reverse a string, you put it in sufficient context so he understands what is happening:
Code:
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
char reverseme[] = "foo bar baz";
char *head;
char *tail;
char c;
tail = reverseme + strlen(reverseme) - 1;
for (head = reverseme; head < tail; head++)
{
c = *head;
*head = *tail;
*tail = c;
tail--;
}
printf("%s\n", reverseme);
return 0;
}
Just as illustrative as what you wrote, but you couldn't hand this in. Now if the person chose to lift this code, and make it into a function (or whatever is necessary to make it useable) you still have to do something to complete your own work.
We are always building on what someone else came up with.
No one asked anyone else to "do their homework for them". They asked help on the reversal of strings, which happens to be their homework. This might be "hair-splitting", except that, in the involved cases, most code was written already. In my first palindrome thread, which was prior to code-writing, I explicitly said, "I don't expect you to write it." I wasn't asking for anything specific. I simply mentioned a programming challenge that also happened to be my homework - which, incidentally,
the final code for differs from the suggestions made.
You hit the nail on the head and yet miss the point completely. If you give somebody the whole fish they eat for a day. Your book and teachers will give you knowledge you're expected to absorb, use, and build upon. It wasn't an incident. I'm willing to bet that Commontater did not paste the code in what you had written. If he had, you didn't need to learn anything, you simply needed to observe that your assignment was completed.
From your point of view this is hair splitting, but I hope I've illustrated the difference between how you helped and how someone else has helped you. I'm not going to buy any excuse you have to offer me when the student gets away with a grade on the absolute minimum of effort.
Would you say it's fair to summarize the whole discussion as follows? I was being a pessimist while you were being an optimist, assuming he wouldn't cheat, even if he had the opportunity. I mean, as long as you understand where I'm coming from in this, then I don't have to keep talking.
