| I have written a few articles in the web about programming topics and have published a few pages of source code too. Some of these articles are in the top results of Google for the right keywords. Now the problem is that I get emails asking about these topics, and I am surprised at the un-professional questions I have received from most of these people. I don't want to sound like a veteran-know-it-all-programming-guru who is whining about the stupid people who are asking his help. I am sincerely not. I am just another programmer who feels that people need to know how to ask for help. Here are some types of questions I get: Can you please send me the codes for XXXX? - I put up the code in the website. That is where you are coming from. Take it from there. I really don't understand what exactly you want. Can you please help me implement XXXX for PEP platform? - I have no idea what PEP means. I implemented XXXX in C/C++. That is all I know, and that is all I can. Can you help me do XXXX taking input from a file? - I have given implementation for XXXX. Just open the file and give the input to the function! Your code is a very complicated. Can I use the following code [code attached] - The code you have given is plain wrong and it does not work. You may want to read some more on the topic, just to get the basics covered. Then the guy responds again: OK. Can you tell me something about graphics in C? - What? How is it related?! I am sorry. You can use these articles to learn more about that. (Those are not the exact replies I sent. I am not that rude!) I get at least one email per day asking for help about these things, and I am not claiming that all are of the emails are like these. But most are, and these people make life worse for everyone. If it is a real a question about something specific that I can answer, I do take time to respond to that, even if I have to work a few extra hours for that. I think that people will help you if they think that you really are putting in the effort. They will help you if they think that you will do a lot better if they help you a little. But sometimes people ask silly things and they write stuff like "Sir, it is very urgent" or "I have to submit project soon" etc. They basically sound like you have to do the whole project for them. Obviously you cannot do that. Of course all this is not an excuse for being rude though. |