From: ······@nowhere
Subject: Student problem
Date: 
Message-ID: <51rn7g$1kmi@mercury.cc.uottawa.ca>
Hi all...

Please if you can point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it.

I have started to learn lisp last week and was given an assignment which 
includes this question:

Write a program which given a maze will return the maze with a trace of the 
path to the exit.

For example give the maze:
(1 is a wall, 8 is your position, 6 is the exit, 0 is a free space, and 3 is 
the trace)

1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 8 0 0 0 1 1
1 0 1 1 1 1 1 
1 0 1 0 0 6 1
1 0 1 0 1 0 1
1 0 0 0 0 0 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1

will return:

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 
1 3 0 0 0 1 1 
1 3 1 1 1 1 1
1 3 1 3 3 6 1
1 3 1 3 1 0 1
1 3 3 3 0 0 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1

We can assume that there is always a way out of the maze (path from 8 to 6).  
The maze is always enclosed by walls (there are 1's all around) and we are 
allowed to use intermediate numbers  (they can appear in the answer.).

One restriction is that we are not allowed to use destructive operations. 

I would appreciate just having the recursive pseudo-code answer or the lisp 
answer...

Thank you for your time!!!

Gates

From: Jeff Long
Subject: Re: Student problem
Date: 
Message-ID: <3241F63D.4FF4@eecs.ukans.edu>
······@nowhere wrote:
> 
> Hi all...
> 
> Please if you can point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it.
> 
> I have started to learn lisp last week and was given an assignment which
> includes this question:
> 
<clip>

> I would appreciate just having the recursive pseudo-code answer or the lisp
> answer...
> 
> Thank you for your time!!!
> 
> Gates

Isn't this called cheating?

-- 
Jeff Long
···········@eecs.ukans.edu
From: Juergen Nickelsen
Subject: Re: Student problem
Date: 
Message-ID: <19960922121707134334@pppx231.berlin.snafu.de>
Jeff Long <····@eecs.ukans.edu> wrote:

> > I have started to learn lisp last week and was given an assignment which
> > includes this question:
[...]
> > I would appreciate just having the recursive pseudo-code answer or the lisp
> > answer...
[...]
> Isn't this called cheating?

It is also called "missing a chance to learn something".

-- 
Juergen Nickelsen
From: Jeff Shrager
Subject: Re: Student problem
Date: 
Message-ID: <523f6r$5kb@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu>
: > > I have started to learn lisp last week and was given an assignment which
: > Isn't this called cheating?
: It is also called "missing a chance to learn something".

Yes, but... If I gave this student this problem and s/he asked me for
help, I would try to give them useful advice w/o giving them the
answer.  Giving a student the answer is assisting in cheating.  Giving
them guidance is respelled: teaching.  HOWEVER, there are number of
reasons that I don't think we ought to answer this question.  First,
the person did not identify him/herself (althouth we might be able to
find them through the message id: ············@mercury.cc.uottawa.ca')
Second, I don't think that we ought to begin a precedent of being lisp
consultants for students.  Finally, I wonder why this person didn't go
to his/her local consultants?  It might be that they don't have any,
which seems unlikely.  More likely, it's just laziness which I don't
think ought to be encouraged.  Even the best intentioned students
these days prefer to ask someone online before bothering to open a
book, speak to their roommate, ask a student consultant, or walk to
the library.  I think that this is deeply wrong and ought not to be
encouraged.

'Jeff
From: Clayton Weaver
Subject: Re: Student problem
Date: 
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.95.960922165417.10537A-100000@eskimo.com>
I don't think one should be so quick to judge a request for student
assistance. Asking on the net has the same advantages for a student that
emailing tech support has over a direct phone call: you handle the answer
on your schedule instead of someone else's. It may be that the student
simply has no clue about how to approach the problem in lisp terms, and a
model of the semantic decomposition of some similar data structure and
algorithm would suffice to allow the student to complete the assignment
before it's due date.

Regards, Clayton Weaver  ······@eskimo.com  (Seattle)
From: Joe Novosel
Subject: Re: Student problem
Date: 
Message-ID: <527ael$h5a@solaria.cc.gatech.edu>
Clayton Weaver (······@eskimo.com) wrote:
: I don't think one should be so quick to judge a request for student
: assistance. Asking on the net has the same advantages for a student that
: emailing tech support has over a direct phone call: you handle the answer
: on your schedule instead of someone else's. It may be that the student
: simply has no clue about how to approach the problem in lisp terms, and a
: model of the semantic decomposition of some similar data structure and
: algorithm would suffice to allow the student to complete the assignment
: before it's due date.

This person stated in the original post that they have just started to 
learn lisp in last 2 weeks.  I've taken an intro AI / lisp class and they 
don't throw that kind of stuff at you in the beginning.  Maybe this person
didn't bother to go to class or do preliminary work that would lead to
the understanding of this problem?

Just my 0.02

-Joe Novosel (········@cc.gatech.edu)