Things to do before posting!

I'm not against the FAQ, what they might do to help repeat questions, is when a question has been asked, say three times, they add links to all the answers. Also, I am more likely to look at an FAQ before searching. The moderator or webmaster or whoever could also add more specific categories, like printing, and also have the default category something that couldn't be used, I think some people don't pay attention to that.

,Plumfield
http://truespacecastle.8m.com

[Jack Shainsky]

I have even better idea for CodeGuru's webmasters :
When somebody submits a question, perform search on subject of this question, and in confirmation page show links to possible answers. So, if the answer to the question will be found, the question will not be actually posted to the forum.

Jack.

[ravish]

How should we let the webmasters know about the proposals?
Do they go through this one?
Ravi

[Jack Shainsky]

Many people in this message thread described, that they wrote mails to CodeGuru Webmasters and recieved no responce. Unfortunately, I think, Earthweb needs from this site just it's traffic and doesn't want to improve something :-(

Jack.

[kishk91]

Hi..
Jack is right..
i sent few emails to the webmasters and recieved not respone..
I saw one day, i dont remember when.. i post here in CG that looked for our suggestions how to improve the site...
i dont think they did somthing about it...
Regards
kishk91


[email protected]
http://www.path.co.il
ICQ: 13610258

[Masaaki]

Hi, all.

You guy misunderstood Codeguru website.
Codeguru is absolutely free and there is no obligation to
our request or email.

The reason why I am against FAQ is that we should understand
what we should do by ourselves and what codeguru website should do
for ourselves.

1)If Codeguru tries to make FAQ, how many hours will they spend the time to do it?

2)How will they determine which question is the content of FAQ?

3)How many do people need FAQ?

These investigations are needed if Codeguru make FAQ pages.

If you become a programmer, you shouldn't rely on FAQ.
When I read the job offer, it sometimes tell that an ability of
resolving the problem by yourself is needed.

Codeguru should not be the main resource to learn MFC.
Main resource is you.

Regards.
-Masaaki Onishi-

[Damnationover]

I am new to this board but an old hand at message boards and coding .... I dont know if the rest of you are enjoying these kids say we dont have the MSDN ... apparently they have been out of school for about 5 mins ... incase your wondering what I am talking about ... http://mdn.microsoft.com ... hold pretty much the complete msdn collection ... plus it is updated more often then your own personal copy ... I dont mind the questions at all .... ask anything you want .... but please search the forum before posting to see if we have already answered it ... and please .... we are not the first line of defense

-Mikey out

[Sam Hobbs]

Notice that that message is three years old. The online MSDN has existed for three more years than it did three years ago. It seems that people are now much more aware of it.

[proxima centaur]

Originally posted by Jan de Kort
Not everyone has got MSDN; especially those doing programming for a hobby and not for a living...

If you purchased a legal version of VC++, you should have MSDN. If you don't, you still can have a pretty up to date version of MSDN online at http://msdn.microsoft.com. Espescially for simple questions!

That is not a good argument.

Like they say: RTFM!

That being said, I think we should be understanding of beginners who might not have the reflex to look at MSDN first.

Between giving a hint or a link and doing homeworks for lazy asses, there is a difference.

[Sam Hobbs]

Not all versions of VC include the entire MSDN.

[proxima centaur]

Then again, if you are a hobbyist, you don't need the entire MSDN usually and if you are a professional, well you can pay for it since it's you job and again... again... it is on the web!

[Lee Peart]

Hi,

I don't know about anyone else, but I found the MSDN that shipped with VC++ v6 a nightmare for the first few months of using it. I sometimes spent hours trying to find the page which actually explained what I needed to know, and a few times ended up just phoning Microsoft support only to have them refer me to the correct document in MSDN.

As for the online version of MSDN, which I have to use when I work from home, I still haven't got that one figured out. You search for a simple function such as SetTimer() and you get a list of over 100 documents in which you can find a description of the function that says it is...

UINT SetTimer(
HWND hWnd, 
UINT nIDEvent, 
UINT uElapse, 
TIMERPROC lpTimerFunc 
);

And another that says...

UINT_PTR SetTimer(
  HWND hWnd,              // handle to window
  UINT_PTR nIDEvent,      // timer identifier
  UINT uElapse,           // time-out value
  TIMERPROC lpTimerFunc   // timer procedure
);

Why is the second parameter type different? I'll tell you why, it's becuase Microsoft have just dumped all documents into the same database so you look for the common WIN32 version of SetTimer and get documents for all variations including the latest that has been redefined for when we have WIN64.

Now I have a good few years experience in digging for answers but to a beginner the MSDN is as much a problem as the bit of their program they are stuck on. I believe many of the questions which are repeatedly asked in this forum are because the person asking has already exhuasted all other resources that they know. Remember a lot of these people are beginners and haven't learnt about all sources of help as yet (of which this forum is one). Be patient and try to point out what options are available to those you are helping. Try to teach, rather than just saying the answer is X and not giving a reason why. Sometimes I find the replies are far more vague than the questions they answer.


Lee

[MiMec]

I don't have the full MSDN installed (just the docs about MFC, C++ libraries and so on). But I have the Platform SDK update which contains very good documentation with clear function descriptions and many examples. I simply use the index to find what I need. By the way, Platform SDK is free, unlike MSDN .

[Elrond]

Originally posted by Masaaki

1)If Codeguru tries to make FAQ, how many hours will they spend the time to do it?

2)How will they determine which question is the content of FAQ?

3)How many do people need FAQ?

Answer to question 1 is probably a lot.

Answer to question 2 is based on the number of times a question is asked in the forum (may be 3, 5 or 10)

Answer to question 3 is almost every one, and certainly every beginner. I think the question should not be who needs it, but who will take the time to look at it. Then, much less people will.

[Elrond]

Originally posted by Paul McKenzie

"There would be less questions concerning basic C++. Windows, and MFC, and more "quality"
questions will appear on CodeGuru".

Except that for some beginners, questions concerning basic C++, windows and MFC may not be some basic. They also need to learn before being able to ask more quality questions.