Are there any legit websites to go to for help?
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I am wondering if there are any reputable websites to help me in my studies? There seem to be a lot of fraudulent ones. I'm not looking to cheat, just for someone who knows what they're doing to explain to me what I need to be doing. I don't think my teacher explains things as easily as they could be explained. I want to learn this language, but I'm tired of it being such an uphill battle. Does anyone know of any sites that could help me with explaining individual programs and whatnot?
Thanks, guys!
Thanks, guys!
There are some people here who would offer free aide. I've helped some people before. I won't do their work for them, but when they run into issues, they send me their code and I point them into the right direction. Alot of us here are really friendly, and as long as you can prove that you're making an effort to go in the right direction, they'll help you.
Well, it's kind of embarrassing how much time I spend programming when you look at my programs. Other than my actual job, and sleep, it's all I do. And I'm not very good. I really want to be, I try so hard, but my introductory class was awful, and my secondary class was so fast-paced! Now, I'm in the third class in the sequence, Data Structures, and after each lecture I feel great, like I can totally do it! Then, when I go to do it, it just blows up in my face. I dream about programming. Nightmares mostly, lol. It's awful. Once I graduate, I fully intend on continuing my programming quest on my own, without these awful crazy time limits, and I'm sure I'll be fine then. But in the mean time, it feels like I'm just not ready for the annoying hard twist my instructor insists on putting on EVERY SINGLE assignment. It's exhausting to always feel so stressed.
Sorry for the long post, but I am very frustrated. It looks like I'm going to get another B in this stupid class. Assuming I don't bomb my last 2 programs and final next week, which is a distinct possibility. Why can't I get an A?! Never encountered anything so hard to grasp. I just need help. I guess I'll post my latest problem when I get home this afternoon and see if anyone can help. Well, I have three programs I'm having problems with currently, actually, and running out of time to figure them out.
Problem is, the code is always too long for the forum, and I don't know how to break it up to ask for help, since I don't know where the problem lies.
Sorry for the long post, but I am very frustrated. It looks like I'm going to get another B in this stupid class. Assuming I don't bomb my last 2 programs and final next week, which is a distinct possibility. Why can't I get an A?! Never encountered anything so hard to grasp. I just need help. I guess I'll post my latest problem when I get home this afternoon and see if anyone can help. Well, I have three programs I'm having problems with currently, actually, and running out of time to figure them out.
Problem is, the code is always too long for the forum, and I don't know how to break it up to ask for help, since I don't know where the problem lies.
Try using pastebin.com, a lot of users here recommend it, as do I. It saves us the headache of people who post 3 pages of code that's almost impossible to read even with proper formatting tags.
As for you programs, taking summer courses is one of the hardest things to do. Everything works at an extremely fast pace, you have limited communication with the teach, and it seems the work load is much greater. Your teacher doesn't sound too bad, other than extremely challenging problems, but one day you'll want to thank him...one day...
And we are always willing to help because we know we will need help ourselves one day. The people that I swear knew it all on here, I have seen them asking for help as well. It's nice to realize we can all help each other in one way or another. Did you still need help with that triangle program? I had assumed you finished it since you posted a new program.
As for you programs, taking summer courses is one of the hardest things to do. Everything works at an extremely fast pace, you have limited communication with the teach, and it seems the work load is much greater. Your teacher doesn't sound too bad, other than extremely challenging problems, but one day you'll want to thank him...one day...
And we are always willing to help because we know we will need help ourselves one day. The people that I swear knew it all on here, I have seen them asking for help as well. It's nice to realize we can all help each other in one way or another. Did you still need help with that triangle program? I had assumed you finished it since you posted a new program.
| It looks like I'm going to get another B in this stupid class. |
I'm not sure how your grading system works, but quite a few people here would cry tears of joy if they got that kind of grade.
| since I don't know where the problem lies. |
That's probably the main problem. The compiler error messages and the debugger generally tell you exactly what the problem is, you just need to learn how to read the messages and how to use the debugger.
In any case, they should give you a good idea in which part of the code the problem lies - then you can post these parts on a forum such as this one.
If your instructor cannot explain the basic concepts adequately, you should use different learning sources. To make the classes less stressful, get yourself a book and make sure you stay well ahead of the class.
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Ha, yes, I believe you about the B. I only mean that the amount of effort I put forth here is ridiculous, so if ever there was an A deserved, it would be for this class.
Definitely do need help reading errors. I'm slowly recognizing repeat offenders, but when it pops up that definitions thing, it might as well be greek. I have no idea how to use that. (You're totally going to pop that back to me here, aren't you? And tell me "that definitions thing" is super important and I'm never gong to be a good programmer if I can't get it, right? I know! Ugh.)
But I'm afraid it's impossible to stay ahead of this class. I've bought 2 other books (C++ for Dummies, and another one, I think.) Our class has a book, of course, but the teacher "doesn't like it" so he doesn't use it very much, and he explains things so much differently than the book does. I use every other study method I can think of! SkillSoft has been very helpful with their online classes, and so has this forum really, but with SO much packed into every week, it's impossible for me to grasp/implement all these concepts in the amount of time he gives us. I easily spend more time on this class than I do at my full time job. By far.
Or, maybe I'm not very smart. Could be.
Definitely do need help reading errors. I'm slowly recognizing repeat offenders, but when it pops up that definitions thing, it might as well be greek. I have no idea how to use that. (You're totally going to pop that back to me here, aren't you? And tell me "that definitions thing" is super important and I'm never gong to be a good programmer if I can't get it, right? I know! Ugh.)
But I'm afraid it's impossible to stay ahead of this class. I've bought 2 other books (C++ for Dummies, and another one, I think.) Our class has a book, of course, but the teacher "doesn't like it" so he doesn't use it very much, and he explains things so much differently than the book does. I use every other study method I can think of! SkillSoft has been very helpful with their online classes, and so has this forum really, but with SO much packed into every week, it's impossible for me to grasp/implement all these concepts in the amount of time he gives us. I easily spend more time on this class than I do at my full time job. By far.
Or, maybe I'm not very smart. Could be.
Are you required to take this class? It's hard to learn something properly under constant stress. It's in the nature of schools that they can't account for the individual learner. Sometimes they might spend a lot of time covering things that you thought were obvious from the beginning and they skip over things you would have liked to hear about in more detail.
Yes, it's required. I'm a CIS major.
~I should note, this is the only teacher available at my school for the upper level programming classes, or else I'd simply take another teacher. His success rate is less than half. (Half the students who take the class end up dropping, and probably a quarter of those who stay fail.) He's very nice, but way too fast-paced, and needs to quit with the twists when we don't even understand what he's twisting yet...
~I should note, this is the only teacher available at my school for the upper level programming classes, or else I'd simply take another teacher. His success rate is less than half. (Half the students who take the class end up dropping, and probably a quarter of those who stay fail.) He's very nice, but way too fast-paced, and needs to quit with the twists when we don't even understand what he's twisting yet...
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You know the more I hear about programming classes the more happy I am that I ultimately decided to learn it on my own. o.O
Any time I got hung up on something I would google around for what I felt to be related issues and in pretty much every case found something that led me to a solution, even if I may not have found an answer directly related to my problem. I found that reading about similar problems other people were having could really help point me in the right direction. In fact most of what I usually needed to get my mind on the right track I read on this website, especially when it came to references for the standard library. If I need to refresh myself on how something like strtok() is used this is the first place I check.
What I can never understand with what I hear regarding programming classes is why the classes always seem to revolve around simply teaching students how to use things rather than teaching them how to determine what sort of things should or could be used. You're never going to learn and memorize everything there is to learn, so learning about *things* is rather useless if you never develop the skill to determine what *things*can be applied to your problem.
Any time I got hung up on something I would google around for what I felt to be related issues and in pretty much every case found something that led me to a solution, even if I may not have found an answer directly related to my problem. I found that reading about similar problems other people were having could really help point me in the right direction. In fact most of what I usually needed to get my mind on the right track I read on this website, especially when it came to references for the standard library. If I need to refresh myself on how something like strtok() is used this is the first place I check.
What I can never understand with what I hear regarding programming classes is why the classes always seem to revolve around simply teaching students how to use things rather than teaching them how to determine what sort of things should or could be used. You're never going to learn and memorize everything there is to learn, so learning about *things* is rather useless if you never develop the skill to determine what *things*can be applied to your problem.
A lot of teachers take for granted what they know and think that if it is easy for them, it's easy for others. Programming teachers find this to be a problem much more often than teachers of other subjects. Programming is an advanced class within itself and the advanced classes are harder yet. Your dedication/devotion to the subject will pay off in the long run.
Concepts of programming is one of the hardest things to get passed and you seem to have a good grasp on the concepts. What I've noticed lately about some of your threads is you've been having a tough time with the abstract thinking required. Programming has many steps from plain text to final code that a lot of people take for granted.
As a general rule of thumb, I use these steps:
1) Rewrite the problem into plain english
2) If the program askes for input, create an example of what the program should do
3) Write down each step you personally would take to go from the input, to the output
4) Turn those steps into basic programming knowledge (pseudo code)
5) Create a basic code structure using the pseudo code
6) Create the project using proper syntax
7) Try to compile it and look at the lines of any errors you get
8) If you're having issues understanding the errors, typically look at the line before for any missing characters (;:"',.etc)
9) Look at each variable in the line the error is coming from and check the declaration to make sure it's still within scope and declared/defined correctly
10) If you're still having issues, try to read through your program using your original example, write each variable, input, and output down on paper with a pencil, and change them when the program does
Obviously the last step isn't practical for large programs, but if you wrote an entire program without trying to compile it once and aren't fluent in understanding the compiler errors, shame on you.
I have had a lot of practice in my early years hand writing entire programs in a notebook just because I wasn't fortunate enough to have a computer. That has made me understand syntax and compiler errors much better since I didn't want to have to rewrite an entire code multiple times.
Sorry about the long winded reply, but I hope this can help others understand the amount of work some of us have done/still do/or will do to ensure our programs work as well as possible.
Concepts of programming is one of the hardest things to get passed and you seem to have a good grasp on the concepts. What I've noticed lately about some of your threads is you've been having a tough time with the abstract thinking required. Programming has many steps from plain text to final code that a lot of people take for granted.
As a general rule of thumb, I use these steps:
1) Rewrite the problem into plain english
2) If the program askes for input, create an example of what the program should do
3) Write down each step you personally would take to go from the input, to the output
4) Turn those steps into basic programming knowledge (pseudo code)
5) Create a basic code structure using the pseudo code
6) Create the project using proper syntax
7) Try to compile it and look at the lines of any errors you get
8) If you're having issues understanding the errors, typically look at the line before for any missing characters (;:"',.etc)
9) Look at each variable in the line the error is coming from and check the declaration to make sure it's still within scope and declared/defined correctly
10) If you're still having issues, try to read through your program using your original example, write each variable, input, and output down on paper with a pencil, and change them when the program does
Obviously the last step isn't practical for large programs, but if you wrote an entire program without trying to compile it once and aren't fluent in understanding the compiler errors, shame on you.
I have had a lot of practice in my early years hand writing entire programs in a notebook just because I wasn't fortunate enough to have a computer. That has made me understand syntax and compiler errors much better since I didn't want to have to rewrite an entire code multiple times.
Sorry about the long winded reply, but I hope this can help others understand the amount of work some of us have done/still do/or will do to ensure our programs work as well as possible.
Don't be sorry, I love the long reply. :) Thank you so much for your response. That's about 10x longer than any response I've ever received from my teacher. I just got home, so I'll be trying to fix my Tree program now...wish me luck!
Good luck, did you get your triangle program completed too? That one seemed more complicated than it should have been in my eyes, but with enough determination, you can do it.
Did you still need help with that triangle program? I had assumed you finished it since you posted a new program. |
I wish! No, I couldn't figure it out, so rather than continue getting further behind, I had to move on. It's the same things as last semester that I can't seem to get a grasp on: the (cursed) Linked Lists and Recursion. (Although, I admit, I am getting the hang of recursion MUCH better than last semester, but that's not saying too much). Again, I'm fine until we get to the Link List. My General list rocks! But then he asked us to implement it as a link list, and I can't figure it out. Isn't that awful? It can't be that hard, right? But I can't do it. So I have until next Friday to finish all these programs and it's so hard to concentrate when all I feel is this horrible stressful anxiety that I won't get it all done!
Ugh.
And ~ last thing: I agree with you 100% about summer classes. Having taken this teacher for other classes, however, I can assure you that that is not why he is rushing. He just does. Always. Every semester, no matter what. Ugh. :)
Okay, so here I go! I'm feeling the Tree right now, so I'm going to start there!
I think I'm just making it worse. :( Insert() is wrong. I know it's wrong, but I can't seem to fix it. When I run this program, I get the strangest version of the Constitution ever! It has a 0 before each word, for starters...
Oh, and Volatile Pulse, you were right about Pastebin.com. Awesome! It's so much easier to see everything there. I pasted this whole program...but I'm not sure what to do with it now. Do I paste it here? Or do I add a link to it, or something?
Anyone?
<iframe src="http://pastebin.com/embed_iframe.php?i=Q6ej3Pup" style="border:none;width:100%"></iframe>
Oh, and Volatile Pulse, you were right about Pastebin.com. Awesome! It's so much easier to see everything there. I pasted this whole program...but I'm not sure what to do with it now. Do I paste it here? Or do I add a link to it, or something?
Anyone?
<iframe src="http://pastebin.com/embed_iframe.php?i=Q6ej3Pup" style="border:none;width:100%"></iframe>
You can actually just copy the url to here. The forum doesn't support html tags. Here is your link:
http://pastebin.com/Q6ej3Pup
I'll take a look at it in a bit
http://pastebin.com/Q6ej3Pup
I'll take a look at it in a bit
I really wish I could help you, but this is one of those things that goes way over my head. I'm horrible using pointers, and even more so with the structures of trees.
I hope someone can come along and help you out though. I'll keep trying to figure this out because it might help me understand it a little better, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
I hope someone can come along and help you out though. I'll keep trying to figure this out because it might help me understand it a little better, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
Quickly, your zero comes from the fact that you initialize temp to '0' in line 52. First, that's a '0', not '\0'. Second, you don't need to do that with a string.
This isn't a linked list, this is a tree. I'll try to find some errors now...
This isn't a linked list, this is a tree. I'll try to find some errors now...
Nice error messages :)
Your output doesn't seem to print the first or the last word. It also doesn't have any spaces.
What are you trying to output from the file exactly?
Edit: I can see that you are confused, but also that you've done a fair amount of experimenting with why things aren't working. I think the fact that you've done a lot to try to make it work is a good sign, better than a good grade.
Your output doesn't seem to print the first or the last word. It also doesn't have any spaces.
What are you trying to output from the file exactly?
Edit: I can see that you are confused, but also that you've done a fair amount of experimenting with why things aren't working. I think the fact that you've done a lot to try to make it work is a good sign, better than a good grade.
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Hey, LowestOne, thanks!! I am by no means done, but I fixed that part, and now at least I have it spitting the Constitution back at me! (That feels like such a huge victory!)
It does give me the very last word twice...but I'll figure that out.
What I need to figure out is how to count each instance of every word, and then supply the output that is required.
I know I need to change every word to lowercase, I was thinking as I read it in would be fine...what else?
Whoo hooo! First progress I've really made in like, 2 days!
It does give me the very last word twice...but I'll figure that out.
What I need to figure out is how to count each instance of every word, and then supply the output that is required.
I know I need to change every word to lowercase, I was thinking as I read it in would be fine...what else?
Whoo hooo! First progress I've really made in like, 2 days!
| What I need to figure out is how to count each instance of every word, and then supply the output that is required. |
Crazy, my current assignment is the same thing, but with the Gettysburg Address and in C.
I think maybe better for you to start all over. Your recursive print function isn't working (which is why you put it in the loop). That's a sign of something very wrong (To be more specific, you haven't made a tree at all). Would you want to rethink the whole thing, or try to fix what you already have?
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