Looking for tolerant C++ beginner forums?
// Because, after looking over the rules in the beginner section of this site, I'm thinking I might not fit in. Tell me if I am 0 or 1 by reading the below.
// Before I ask questions, it seems I need to go through quite a process. Now, I wouldn't mind spending a hell week's amount of time and effort just coding or learning to code, but I will admit that I'm probably not going "search the forums" before asking something. I mean, I'll try to have enough common sense to not ask things like "what does int mean" or anything similar, but I can't make any promises either.
// I would prefer if I could easily engage in a discussion about any simple questions(ESPECIALLY syntax questions) I might have with people who barely mind answering(or even enjoy answering) repetitive || common questions. I'd like it to be a place where people care more about helping someone learn, rather than worry about how cluttered their encyclopedia-destined database of a forum looks.
// I'm also being very serious, so... if (the rules here == lenient enough for someone like me) { I'd like to stay; } else { I hope it isn't a problem for anyone to direct me to another website; }. I'm hoping there's no rule against directing me to another place, like it's some sort of loss-of-profit situation for cplusplus.com and violators will be prosecuted.
// Anyway, I love you. Questions? Answers?
// Before I ask questions, it seems I need to go through quite a process. Now, I wouldn't mind spending a hell week's amount of time and effort just coding or learning to code, but I will admit that I'm probably not going "search the forums" before asking something. I mean, I'll try to have enough common sense to not ask things like "what does int mean" or anything similar, but I can't make any promises either.
// I would prefer if I could easily engage in a discussion about any simple questions(ESPECIALLY syntax questions) I might have with people who barely mind answering(or even enjoy answering) repetitive || common questions. I'd like it to be a place where people care more about helping someone learn, rather than worry about how cluttered their encyclopedia-destined database of a forum looks.
// I'm also being very serious, so... if (the rules here == lenient enough for someone like me) { I'd like to stay; } else { I hope it isn't a problem for anyone to direct me to another website; }. I'm hoping there's no rule against directing me to another place, like it's some sort of loss-of-profit situation for cplusplus.com and violators will be prosecuted.
// Anyway, I love you. Questions? Answers?
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| I'd like it to be a place where people care more about helping someone learn, rather than worry about how cluttered their encyclopedia-destined database of a forum looks. |
The rules are to avoid people who just post their homework assignment or some not working code and expect us to give them the entire solution to their problem
But anyways, everyone gets an answer here, even if that is just a link to the how-to-ask thing
// I'm sure I will understand eventually. I just can't yet imagine any questions I would ask that one could easily find using a search bar. Homework questions won't be a problem from me, I'm self-teaching(can't afford anything that... requires money) so most of the time my questions will be from personal experimentation.
// Though, I am an analytical person. Would people be bothered if I were to ask for even deeper meanings of things? I hope to most importantly "master the basics", so much of my studying and learning will be related to..well.. basics.
// Also, I can deal with links. I'd consider that an answer anyway.
// Well, I can tell you one thing about the whole "getting tired of answering the same questions" issue... if I can get a solid foundation of understanding C++, I would be happy to take the job of answering those questions for other beginners in some way. I won't get tired of it, I'm very sure.
// Though, I am an analytical person. Would people be bothered if I were to ask for even deeper meanings of things? I hope to most importantly "master the basics", so much of my studying and learning will be related to..well.. basics.
// Also, I can deal with links. I'd consider that an answer anyway.
// Well, I can tell you one thing about the whole "getting tired of answering the same questions" issue... if I can get a solid foundation of understanding C++, I would be happy to take the job of answering those questions for other beginners in some way. I won't get tired of it, I'm very sure.
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| I won't get tired of it, I'm very sure. |
Trust me, you will. And if you won't, you're too busy with typing texts, so you cannot focus on more advanced subjects, so you'd end up not advancing, which is the whole purpose of this forum: Everyone learning something.
I used to dive into a lot of simple questions to help others. It worked, but after a while, I found that there were a lot of things people just never learn, the most important one being searching the forums. (Why would there be a search field on the top of this page, hm?)
// Again, this whole searching thing boggles my mind because I just can't see how a question that I ever would have could fit and be properly found using a search bar, unless this is one advanced search bar we're talking about. I would expect the question to be something like "Here's some code, here's the problem, wtf do I do?" and I can't see how I can search for something like that.
// The problem lies in the fact that, so far, I don't know what to search for to find what I'd need to find. I'm hoping that these "tired people" will have enough energy to tell me what I should have typed into the search bar to find what I was looking for. I may need that help for a while, but I do know that it will help me learn to search for topics correctly in the future.
// There are two goals in my life, improving technology(in which programming would be my outlet into technology) and making people smarter. So I'm afraid me getting tired of answering questions isn't going to happen... I suppose it's more of a philosophical thing. In my mind, I don't agree that my past should prevent someone's future.
// I also have a very deep love and desire for programming in general, and any opportunity to help just one more person delve deeper into this realm that I love is something I would like to not pass up. I see the butterfly effect of it as well, where me helping someone learn this may produce a variety of possibilities that usually result in "someone else being interested in programming, somewhere".
// I will of course tell people what they could have typed into that search bar, so that I don't propagate the lack of searching. I myself can't wait to efficiently learn to use it.
// The problem lies in the fact that, so far, I don't know what to search for to find what I'd need to find. I'm hoping that these "tired people" will have enough energy to tell me what I should have typed into the search bar to find what I was looking for. I may need that help for a while, but I do know that it will help me learn to search for topics correctly in the future.
// There are two goals in my life, improving technology(in which programming would be my outlet into technology) and making people smarter. So I'm afraid me getting tired of answering questions isn't going to happen... I suppose it's more of a philosophical thing. In my mind, I don't agree that my past should prevent someone's future.
// I also have a very deep love and desire for programming in general, and any opportunity to help just one more person delve deeper into this realm that I love is something I would like to not pass up. I see the butterfly effect of it as well, where me helping someone learn this may produce a variety of possibilities that usually result in "someone else being interested in programming, somewhere".
// I will of course tell people what they could have typed into that search bar, so that I don't propagate the lack of searching. I myself can't wait to efficiently learn to use it.
Here are some examples of articles that answer FAQ, they can be easily found but people keep asking these
"how do I pause the DOS prompt?" ( even if it isn't a DOS prompt )
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/articles/7312/
"if I don't enter a number the program goes crazy :^("
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/articles/6046/
"how do I make a number in a string?"
http://www.cplusplus.com/articles/numb_to_text/
"why do I need headers?"
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/articles/10627/
"what is a good book for beginners?"
http://www.cplusplus.com/articles/Book_Of_Brilliant_Things/
etc.
"how do I pause the DOS prompt?" ( even if it isn't a DOS prompt )
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/articles/7312/
"if I don't enter a number the program goes crazy :^("
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/articles/6046/
"how do I make a number in a string?"
http://www.cplusplus.com/articles/numb_to_text/
"why do I need headers?"
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/articles/10627/
"what is a good book for beginners?"
http://www.cplusplus.com/articles/Book_Of_Brilliant_Things/
etc.
// Ah, thank you for the examples. I guess I forgot that those kinds of questions are asked, my main concern was me asking what I think is a complicated question, when I could have asked the question in a simpler form that was searchable. I just have a feeling this may happen to me because there are programming concepts that are just...so... I don't know lol.
// Anyway, I think the question is mainly resolved. I'll be staying here for now it seems ^.^ but feel free to tell me about other useful C++ learning forums or other places of communication.
// Anyway, I think the question is mainly resolved. I'll be staying here for now it seems ^.^ but feel free to tell me about other useful C++ learning forums or other places of communication.
// I just started doing it since I joined here heh. At first I tried just double-space indents and it wouldn't work, so yeah. I don't normally indent at all, but I thought I'd start a new habit of some sort. I like it, to me it makes what I say more readable(though I could use work on that in other areas).
// It also reminds me of certain forums that alternate colors between posts, where the background is darker, then lighter. I feel that maybe even some sort of triple color coded-type thing would work for reading, for example in any sort of document with multiple lines I could imagine line 1: grey, 2: light grey, 3: white. If it were made for paper documents I'd like to rethink it in a way that didn't waste ink I suppose. I'd also like there to be something that when there is selectable text present, that if you hover your mouse over a word(Maybe while holding another key) it would display information about that word. Ooh, or maybe even an interface with information at each side of the screen, definitions, thesaurus, rhyming alternatives and other info(possibly customizable like you would with widgets or Google desktop).
// Yeah I have a thing for improving things in certain ways... good thing I chose the programming path. Go technology, go humanity. Let's expand into space and other planets already! We need to...
// It also reminds me of certain forums that alternate colors between posts, where the background is darker, then lighter. I feel that maybe even some sort of triple color coded-type thing would work for reading, for example in any sort of document with multiple lines I could imagine line 1: grey, 2: light grey, 3: white. If it were made for paper documents I'd like to rethink it in a way that didn't waste ink I suppose. I'd also like there to be something that when there is selectable text present, that if you hover your mouse over a word(Maybe while holding another key) it would display information about that word. Ooh, or maybe even an interface with information at each side of the screen, definitions, thesaurus, rhyming alternatives and other info(possibly customizable like you would with widgets or Google desktop).
// Yeah I have a thing for improving things in certain ways... good thing I chose the programming path. Go technology, go humanity. Let's expand into space and other planets already! We need to...
The biggest reason that people in forum communities prefer that would-be-question askers to PLEASE do their homework first is because nobody here gets paid to an answer questions... people that participate in answering forum questions doso of their own free will, and are by no means obligated to take care of anything. It always baffles me when people come into these places getting all worked up at the people that would help them out.
In truth, I doubt you'll find ANY forum with an abundance of highly skilled people just waiting around to answer the questions of those who are too lazy to at least make attempts to try to find out for themselves.
Also, you may notice that a lot of people won't outright give an answer, but instead direct you to somewhere you might learn of it, or give you a hint of some keywords or concepts that may be required for the task, so you have the direction to find the answers yourself. Everyone benifits that way... you learn the lesson, the REAL way, and don't have to keep coming back for the same thing, and the volunteer guru's aren't constantly having to answer the same old question for the same old people over and over.
I know this place has it's own set of rules and guidelines for posting, but here's two more that I "grew up" with...
http://www.mvps.org/access/netiquette.htm <-- see the "Asking questions the right way" and "Answering questions the right way" sections.
http://www.utteraccess.com/uagoodquestion.htm <--- this one is somewhat specific to UA, but get's the point across well.
cheers,
In truth, I doubt you'll find ANY forum with an abundance of highly skilled people just waiting around to answer the questions of those who are too lazy to at least make attempts to try to find out for themselves.
Also, you may notice that a lot of people won't outright give an answer, but instead direct you to somewhere you might learn of it, or give you a hint of some keywords or concepts that may be required for the task, so you have the direction to find the answers yourself. Everyone benifits that way... you learn the lesson, the REAL way, and don't have to keep coming back for the same thing, and the volunteer guru's aren't constantly having to answer the same old question for the same old people over and over.
I know this place has it's own set of rules and guidelines for posting, but here's two more that I "grew up" with...
http://www.mvps.org/access/netiquette.htm <-- see the "Asking questions the right way" and "Answering questions the right way" sections.
http://www.utteraccess.com/uagoodquestion.htm <--- this one is somewhat specific to UA, but get's the point across well.
cheers,
I don't think the // makes your text more readable. Quite the opposite, in fact. I'd just leave a blank line between paragraphs. But maybe that's just me.
Oh, if you're going to talk in comments the 'right' way you should do this:
Just a thought...
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Just a thought...
I don't see where this forum is not tolerant?
I came here as a beginner too, knowing close to nothing, and IMO the people here are all very nice and helpful.
I never got blamed for asking stupid questions (if that exists) or anything like that. I thinks that is because of the small community. On big forums people tend to be less polite, for some reason.
-Xander
I came here as a beginner too, knowing close to nothing, and IMO the people here are all very nice and helpful.
I never got blamed for asking stupid questions (if that exists) or anything like that. I thinks that is because of the small community. On big forums people tend to be less polite, for some reason.
-Xander
+1 jleach (nice comments)
Despite periodic claims of there are no stupid questions, there are questions that are more likely to be answered than others.
Posts more likely to be ignored:
1. If a question can be google'd in a second.
2. Really, really basic questions that should be read in a book/tutorial. C++ is a huge language which requires some effort on part of the student to learn as much as possible on his/her own. The forum can be used to fill the pieces of knowledge and experience that's hard to cover on own's own.
3. Debugging questions without a good example and a test case.
4. Vague questions and/or comments.
Here's an example of a good post that got a quick response and solution/fix:
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/general/30295/
The title is clear and the post is succinct - got right to the point of the problem. Code is posted with test cases.
BTW, it is fine to post questions about programming concepts. There are plenty of funky concepts and syntax in C++ to confuse beginning programmers. Feel free to ask them if, after some effort, you get stuck.
Despite periodic claims of there are no stupid questions, there are questions that are more likely to be answered than others.
Posts more likely to be ignored:
1. If a question can be google'd in a second.
2. Really, really basic questions that should be read in a book/tutorial. C++ is a huge language which requires some effort on part of the student to learn as much as possible on his/her own. The forum can be used to fill the pieces of knowledge and experience that's hard to cover on own's own.
3. Debugging questions without a good example and a test case.
4. Vague questions and/or comments.
Here's an example of a good post that got a quick response and solution/fix:
http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/general/30295/
The title is clear and the post is succinct - got right to the point of the problem. Code is posted with test cases.
BTW, it is fine to post questions about programming concepts. There are plenty of funky concepts and syntax in C++ to confuse beginning programmers. Feel free to ask them if, after some effort, you get stuck.
// jleach: Thank you, but that info wasn't required. I don't care if I get an answer or not, I just wanted to know if it were against the rules to be asking. No more assumptions :P
// filipe: Selfishly, I meant more easily readable by "me". I don't use the // as a separator of paragraphs, I still separate paragraphs with a blank line when I feel it's right.
// nickburress2k2: I'm not trying to talk in comments. No more assumptions #2 :P
// xander333: That answers my first question quite well, thank you!
// kfmfe04: That also answers my first question and more with extra information and details, thank you #2!
// filipe: Selfishly, I meant more easily readable by "me". I don't use the // as a separator of paragraphs, I still separate paragraphs with a blank line when I feel it's right.
// nickburress2k2: I'm not trying to talk in comments. No more assumptions #2 :P
// xander333: That answers my first question quite well, thank you!
// kfmfe04: That also answers my first question and more with extra information and details, thank you #2!
Here is an example of bad question: http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/beginner/30372/
- Insignificant title
- No real question, just a copy-paste of the exercise text
- No effort from the poster to figure out the solution ( ie: no code )
- (Likely) OP is expecting the total solution
- OP complaining for not getting an answer
- Insignificant title
- No real question, just a copy-paste of the exercise text
- No effort from the poster to figure out the solution ( ie: no code )
- (Likely) OP is expecting the total solution
- OP complaining for not getting an answer
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I don't see this forum being intolerant of questions. Though, personally I get a little frustrated when if becomes fairly obvious people aren't trying to figure things out for themselves, and just expect people to do it for them.
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