C itself and what can be done with/in it

[Alexei A. Frounze]

I wonder why so many newbies (and maybe not only them) come here with
questions about fork(), sockets, Tk, linked list, etc etc? Isn't this group
devoted to C, just C, questions about C, and *not* things that can be done
with/in it?

Alex

 

[osmium]

I wonder why so many newbies (and maybe not only them) come here with
questions about fork(), sockets, Tk, linked list, etc etc? Isn't this
group
devoted to C, just C, questions about C, and *not* things that can be done
with/in it?

I think the non-newbies making such posts thinks that this froup has one of
the higher concentrations of knowledge regarding writing C programs. IMO,
most of the followers of the other groups are some subset of this group.
microsoft.public.visual_C.usa.montana.june.2005 has specialists who are
interested in such things but quite likely visit here too.

 

[Richard Bos]

I wonder why so many newbies (and maybe not only them) come here with
questions about fork(), sockets, Tk, linked list, etc etc? Isn't this group
devoted to C, just C, questions about C, and *not* things that can be done
with/in it?

I wonder why a troll like you doesn't go to Moscow, walk to the Red
Square, and shout "Vladimir Putin takes young boys up the behind!" at
the top of your voice, for as long as you can manage.

Richard

 

[Alexei A. Frounze]

I wonder why a troll like you ...

Mutually,
Alex

 

[Kenny McCormack]

Mutually,
Alex

Indeed and well put. You two are a pair.

When is the wedding?

 

[CBFalconer]

I wonder why so many newbies (and maybe not only them) come here
with questions about fork(), sockets, Tk, linked list, etc etc?
Isn't this group devoted to C, just C, questions about C, and
*not* things that can be done with/in it?

Largely because they are ignorant, and lack the courtesy to find
out what the group is about before spewing their off-topic
questions. A further problem is those that answer the off-topic
questions, rather than simply redirecting the offender to a
suitable group.

The faulty google interface seems to be spawning many of the
trouble makers. Google could do a lot by simply correcting the
interface, and also presenting some proper documentation on usenet
usage before letting just anybody post. So far they are coming off
as technically incompetent in this field.

You can help by complaining to those who answer off-topic
questions.

 

[Alexei A. Frounze]

....

You can help by complaining to those who answer off-topic
questions.

Btw, does the FAQ (the full one) for this group contains any links to the
groups that are more relevant to all other things but C and libc? I'm not
sure I've seen any any in the short/abridged one posted recently...

Alex

 

[Kenneth Brody]

I wonder why so many newbies (and maybe not only them) come here with
questions about fork(), sockets, Tk, linked list, etc etc? Isn't this group
devoted to C, just C, questions about C, and *not* things that can be done
with/in it?

For the same reason newbies used to post to alt.tech-support.recovery and
ask how to recover their data after a crash, or to alt.sysadmin.recovery
with sysadmin questions. If you think you get harsh answers here, try
doing it over there. Here, people will at least point the non-trolls to
the right place. There, you'll likely be told where to go. (They'll
probably even give directions.)

--
+-------------------------+--------------------+-----------------------------+
| Kenneth J. Brody | www.hvcomputer.com | |
| kenbrody/at\spamcop.net | www.fptech.com | #include <std_disclaimer.h> |
+-------------------------+--------------------+-----------------------------+
Don't e-mail me at: <mailto:[email protected]>

 

[Keith Thompson]

...

Btw, does the FAQ (the full one) for this group contains any links to the
groups that are more relevant to all other things but C and libc? I'm not
sure I've seen any any in the short/abridged one posted recently...

Go find out. <http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html>.

 

[Netocrat]

I wonder why a troll like you doesn't go to Moscow, walk to the Red
Square, and shout "Vladimir Putin takes young boys up the behind!" at
the top of your voice, for as long as you can manage.

Humourous, but unnecessary and unkind.

Alexei's post is arguably off-topic, but it is of interest to the
group. He is not a troll.

Alexei: Chuck's answer is spot-on. I would add that many are actually
trolls imitating newbies. It's not always clear which is true, but I
support Kenny's approach of posting a one-liner identification of
obvious troll posts. I think it would be better if this were supported
by the FAQ which would also specify the means of identification of
obvious troll posts.

 

[Alexei A. Frounze]

Humourous, but unnecessary and unkind.

Alexei's post is arguably off-topic, but it is of interest to the
group. He is not a troll.
Thanks.

Alexei: Chuck's answer is spot-on. I would add that many are actually
trolls imitating newbies. It's not always clear which is true, but I
support Kenny's approach of posting a one-liner identification of
obvious troll posts. I think it would be better if this were supported
by the FAQ which would also specify the means of identification of
obvious troll posts.

I've just looked through the FAQ table of contents and the things that are
obviously outside the context of C and libc, should've probably gone to
miscellaneous, bibliography and links... But I haven't found much. Having a
bigger portion of the FAQ with explanation of what has to do with C and libc
and what doesn't would be better. Yes, it is good to make a one liner hint,
but many of these (the most frequent or by semantic group) could be listed
there. All general topics about data and structures and algorithms like
searching, sorting, random numbers, non standard I/O could have been listed.
IMO a balanced amount of this can be done. The best would be to have a link
to the book and to the group dealing with it.
I'm not asking you guys to do it or offerning my services for it, just
stating that something could be improved. There's a very good FAQ for e.g.
DJGPP. There're tons of different references (including the old SWAG archive
with pascal+asm code snippets for many of the trivial tasks and
algorithms)...

Alex

 

[Mark McIntyre]

I've just looked through the FAQ table of contents and the things that are
obviously outside the context of C and libc, should've probably gone to
miscellaneous, bibliography and links...

No, the point of an FAQ is to answer frequently asked questions. Some
of these are bound to be offtopic or marginally topical.

But I haven't found much.

Its well worth reading the entire FAQ. You are almost certain to learn
something.

I'm not asking you guys to do it or offerning my services for it, just
stating that something could be improved.

Steve Summit, who 'owns' the FAQ and published the book version, does
read this group. I've no doubt he'll consider what you say. Though its
obviously up to him to decide if he wants to change it.

 

[Dave Thompson]

"Alexei A. Frounze" <[email protected]> writes:

Go find out. <http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html>.

The FAQ does not; the Welcome message did, but whoever (or more likely
whatever) was posting it seems to have stopped (again).

- David.Thompson1 at worldnet.att.net

 

[Alexei A. Frounze]

The FAQ does not; the Welcome message did, but whoever (or more likely
whatever) was posting it seems to have stopped (again).

At comp.lang.asm.x86 the automated posting of a short FAQ was quite
successful.

Alex