Ask HN: where to ask trivial programming questions

#1

Post by rhr » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 9:06 PM UTC

Greeting

I am trying to learn programming on my own but find myself getting stuck a lot. For example, I just wrote the simple maxLine program from K&R as an exercise, the compiler, gcc, gives me the following error when I define a symbolic constant MAXLINE=1000 in the code, but happily compiles the code when I use int 1000 directly:

maxLine.c:21: error: expected expression before ‘=’ token

so my question is, is there a good website/mail group where I can get help on these kind of issues, something very trivial to experts but could take me hours to figure it out.

thanks

Re: Ask HN: where to ask trivial programming questions

#2

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 9:16 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: where to ask trivial programming questions

#3

Post by corey » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 9:17 PM UTC

http://www.stackoverflow.com

Re: Ask HN: where to ask trivial programming questions

#4

Post by joeld42 » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 10:01 PM UTC

I find IRC is great for general questions like these. people don't mind helping newbies and since it's so ephemeral you don't feel bad asking lots of beginner questions.

Re: Ask HN: where to ask trivial programming questions

#5

Post by gtani » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 10:06 PM UTC

look for a mentoring or tutor list for your language

http://rubymentor.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl

http://railsbridge.org/

http://www.railsmentors.org/

and python

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/tutor/

Re: Ask HN: where to ask trivial programming questions

#6

Post by weaksauce » Wed, Sep 16, 2009, 12:07 AM UTC

Stackoverflow is a great resource and I would definitely use that for tougher questions as opposed to basic syntax errors. IRC is better suited to this type of question.

Before even using IRC I would google it. Google will get you on the right track most times if you just google the compiler error. They usually only come up when you mess up in a particular way so you should be able to intuit what's going on. Though on this particular error it just means that you messed up on the syntax of the define statement. (hint no equals... #define MAXLINE 100) The third or fourth result is someone with the exact same problem.

Re: Ask HN: where to ask trivial programming questions

#7

Post by rhr » Wed, Sep 16, 2009, 2:14 AM UTC

Thanks for the help, everyone!

Re: Ask HN: where to ask trivial programming questions

#8

Post by RiderOfGiraffes » Wed, Sep 16, 2009, 9:49 AM UTC

gtani wrote: post #5

look for a mentoring or tutor list for your language http://rubymentor.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl http://railsbridge.org/ http://www.railsmentors.org/ and python http://mail.python.org/pipermail/tutor/

I didn't check the others, but that last one is really advanced:

    Archive        View by:                    Downloadable version 
   January 2027: [Thread|Subject|Author|Date] [Gzip'd Text 597 bytes ]

I just so like the idea of an archive from 2027 ...

Re: Ask HN: where to ask trivial programming questions

#9

Post by CyberFonic » Wed, Sep 16, 2009, 1:10 PM UTC

You will find a good introductory book on programming a great deal of help. Try to pick one that has examples of compile commands and makefiles.

Another alternative is to take an OSS project and read, make changes. Typically all the makefiles, etc are correctly setup. There are some excellent videos on-line as well.

Re: Ask HN: where to ask trivial programming questions

#10

Post by MaysonL » Sun, Sep 20, 2009, 10:43 PM UTC

RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #8

gtani wrote: post #5

look for a mentoring or tutor list for your language http://rubymentor.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl http://railsbridge.org/ http://www.railsmentors.org/ and python http://mail.python.org/pipermail/tutor/

I didn't check the others, but that last one is really advanced: Archive View by: Downloadable version January 2027: [Thread|Subject|Author|Date] [Gzip'd Text 597 bytes ] I just so like the idea of an archive from 2027 ...

The January 1980 thread was amazingly prescient...