Is it just me, or....

Henry_Best:

GoForSmoke:
I AM CALLING FROM VWINDOWS, YOUR COMPUTER IS REPORTING A WIRUS.

I don't trust anyone who can't tell their wees from their wubbleyews!

That's being very unkind to the Elmer Fudds and Barry Kripkes of this world.

My favourite question is "I am designing a traffic light system..." as though it's a project they have set themselves.

It also shows how many people just ask a question without at least trying to use the Search facility.

You never know! I actually have a vintage traffic light that used to hang in my town. (The un-hanging of that light is completely legit and has nothing to do with me.... to the best of my knowledge.) My first circuit design was a 555 timer and decade counter to cycle the lights. One of my first Arduino projects was to digitize that process. To this day I haven't actually had the board made with relays to control the bulbs, but the LEDs lit up nicely.

dannable:
My favourite question is "I am designing a traffic light system..." as though it's a project they have set themselves.

They stop posting that at the end of term [semester]. We'll get a 6 week break shortly.

It also shows how many people just ask a question without at least trying to use the Search facility.

The blink without delay example is the favourite for that.

The Kwipke Kwippler.... now THAT was a wobot.

(Ok, not so much a robot as an RC, but still.)

JimboZA:
The Kwipke Kwippler.... now THAT was a wobot.

(Ok, not so much a robot as an RC, but still.)

The products sold by ACME Inc. are far better. Meep meep!

Henry_Best:

dannable:
My favourite question is "I am designing a traffic light system..." as though it's a project they have set themselves.

I had heard that the Motorola 6800 was designed to run traffic signals.
Didn't they use redundant controllers and consensus actions? The racetrack betting machines I knew did a couple of coders for ran that way on 6800's. Those and 6502's are register-sparse but they have redeeming features. I would put a 1 MHz 6502 in almost the same class as a 4 MHz 8085 or Z80.

They stop posting that at the end of term [semester]. We'll get a 6 week break shortly.

It also shows how many people just ask a question without at least trying to use the Search facility.

The blink without delay example is the favourite for that.

But why save the time just finding the answers right there to read when, you can type a question that starts a process that may eventually lead you to the same point after hours to days or weeks. Which is easier?

However, when you don't know what you're looking for then how do you search for it or know when you see it?

GoForSmoke:
However, when you don't know what you're looking for then how do you search for it or know when you see it?

One of the most asked questions is: "how do I merge 2 sketches"
Typing this exact question in google gives as second hit Merging Code :fearful:

I wouldn't mind a question like.
I read this article and what I do not understand is ....

Will the future of mankind be "those who can google and those who can't"?

Jantje

When it is the same words they post... that is a true positive, no real attempt to search was made.

But take the ones who got ambitious with leds before they learned about arrays.
Pin names that only differ by the digits at the end, and they're all int to hold jsut 1 bit!

But you can't search for three exclamation marks, it returns no results. And given how often that crops up it would be handy if it did. Or if there was a sticky explaining the problem in the appropriate section?

works great with exclamation points
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how%20do%20I%20merge%202%20sketches!!!#

Jantje:
Will the future of mankind be "those who can google and those who can't"?

I Googled that question and got no answers, so I don't know.

google results.PNG

JimboZA:

Jantje:
Will the future of mankind be "those who can google and those who can't"?

I Googled that question and got no answers, so I don't know.

rofl

GoForSmoke:
However, when you don't know what you're looking for then how do you search for it or know when you see it?

This is legitimate, especially for vague questions and ones that use terms likely to match an impossible number of topics. Search isn't going to be intelligent enough to answer complex contextual queries for a while yet. :slight_smile:

Jantje:
One of the most asked questions is: "how do I merge 2 sketches"

Yep, I've seen that one a lot. This question shows a fundamental lack of understanding on the topic of programming. Like, you can mix one sketch that is blue, one that is yellow, and get one that is green. There's just no telling if they're compatible in a copy/paste kind of way, so you can't ever build a procedural approach to this problem. It requires creativity and understanding of the code -- and based on the question itself, you can bet that level of understanding is absent. What can you do? Learning curves are a .... pain. :wink:

People who don't know what to search for and wouldn't know if they found it should be getting educated before searching which should be done before asking questions just because the questions will be answerable in terms that the questioner might understand.

Asking how to merge sketches is saying you don't know how they work.

GoForSmoke:
Asking how to merge sketches is saying you don't know how they work.

Yes indeed but ... there are many approaches and some are simply better than others. Think about reuse and so.
Grumpy mike did a cool write up on that. Merging Code
I'm using the exact same thing except for I use classes.
So grumpy's

  void loop(){
    loopFade();
    loopBlink();
  }

in my code becomes

  void loop(){
    fade.loop();
    blink.loop();
  }

I think newbies who ask the question should start with Grumpies approach

Best regards
Jantje

And all of a sudden there are a lot of questions about clocks and displaying the time!

When do the schools/colleges start their holidays??

Summer school.

Some courses are not just for catchup but simply a bit of extra, often as fun workshops.

dannable:
And all of a sudden there are a lot of questions about clocks and displaying the time!

When do the schools/colleges start their holidays??

Depends on the country. In the UK, about the 20th of July for schools. Colleges may be earlier. It's a long time since I was in formal education :slight_smile: