User talk:Dysprosia~enwikibooks/Archive

I will not be here from the 23rd of December to the 26th of January.

Hello and Welcome! You might be interested in checking out Textbook planning or the Staff lounge. --mav 06:32 3 Aug 2003 (UTC)


 * Thanks mav :) Dysprosia 11:42, 19 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Dysprosia: Don't want to sound rude, but your change on the Algebra I page isn't correct. A surd is not specifically a radical. More accurately, it's an irrational number-any irrational number. $$\sqrt {3}$$ is a surd and a radical, $$\pi$$ is a surd but not a radical...Surd is an outdated term anyway. Every Algebra I book I've ever seen calls them 'irrational numbers'.
 * Etothex 01:21, 12 Sep 2003 (UTC)
 * Oh damn, you're right! I better go and fix all this. Dysprosia 07:05, 12 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for fixing all those multiple choice pages. I misspelled it once,never noticed, then copied and pasted it for all thew other pages (so I only had to change the numbers) Theresa knott 11:47, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)

No problem :) Dysprosia 12:08, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Why are you changing all the page names in the German text and others? I was not aware that we had settled on a style and I prefer spaces (i.e. German: Lesson 1) as it reads better at the top of the page - Marsh 09:20, 3 Nov 2003 (UTC)


 * It's convention by default, really - sorry if changing them upset you. If you look at how it's done in all other name spaces, such as User talk:, Wikibooks:, User:, there are no spaces between the colon and article name.
 * Maybe I'm being pernickety and should just let others do their thing. Revert/move back if you prefer (with my apologies). Dysprosia 11:25, 3 Nov 2003 (UTC)
 * I'll have to think about it. Not upset, but I had just finished changing over the few old way pages. There was some discussion on standarding these things (Staff Lounge), but that has not gone too far. Don't you think it looks better at the top of each book page to have German: Lesson 1 rather than German:Lesson 1 (convention or not)? - Marsh 17:00, 3 Nov 2003 (UTC)
 * I don't really have a preference :) Dysprosia 06:19, 4 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Dysprosia - Good working with you on the C book. I'm using my experiences teaching at the university to guide my thinking, so I'll probably tend to be pretty retentive based on the common problems I see from my students. But my main goal is to get a usable text book, and that transcends all other desires. Good input - glad to be able to open source this! Maffu 23:33, 10 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome. :) I just wander round here when I feel like a change from Wikipedia. Angela

Thanks for the welcome; I thought it would be a fun change. :) I think I have a lot to learn about what style is used here though, so I'm trying not to change too much at first. - Hephaestos 01:28, 20 Nov 2003 (UTC)
 * Well, if you like, stick with Wikipedia style, but for math I use my own idiosyncratic variant lol - it's logical to me - but if others want to change it to conform to WP style I won't really argue with them :) Dysprosia 03:41, 20 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Style
I like your teaching style (e.g., Discrete mathematics:Finite fields). It contains some casual questions and some transitions and comparisons. Very professional. Keep up the good work! --Menchi 01:43, 27 Nov 2003 (UTC)


 * Thanks, it's kind of you to say so :) Dysprosia 03:51, 27 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Dysprosia - Flushing buffers may not always work; but it does work for many applications and it resolves many troubles with beginning programmers. The fflush function is quite simple and allows new C coders the chance to work on other issues in their course instead of trying to figure out why scanf doesn't seem to work right. I know this because I've seen these students wrestle with it. fflush does the job.

I'm willing to concede that further discussion is appropriate; however, deleting mention of this topic entirely is wrong -- students need to know where to begin their search for help. If you insist on deleting this reference, I suggest that you either offer an alternative method or we seek additional ideas, because students need to know how to handle code that seems to bypass their scanf calls.

Maffu 01:43, 29 Nov 2003 (UTC)


 * Some implementations/compilers of C will let you fflush(stdin) and have the behaviour as expected but it's not really legal C (check K&R - fflush(stdin) is undefined) as you can only reliably fflush output streams. Have a look on the web too, many discourage fflush(stdin). fflush(stdin)'s behaviour is not portable, either. We should be emphasizing portability and legality - that's what makes good C programs.
 * The other way to have behaviour that will act like fflush(stdin) is to chuck characters away until a newline is reached, but this won't work for all situations. There's no real reliable way, otherwise.
 * I apologize if I was a little bull-headed in removing the reference, and I'll try and add a compromise in the text. Dysprosia 04:43, 29 Nov 2003 (UTC)


 * I agree with most of what you say. I personally would sacrifice portability for functionality at this level.  And K&R is primarily a grammar reference for me; functional applications can't possibly be dictated in a language spec - there would be no way to cover all angles.  I haven't reviewed K&R for this, but will shortly.  Unless the language explicitly forbids this type of application, I don't consider it "illegal" - although a caveat on portability would certainly be appropriate.
 * I'm content with the wording you've inserted and appreciate the compromise. I'm sure there is a "proper" method for clearing the buffer.  I'll try to find that method so that we can offer what the student needs.
 * Maffu 04:51, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)


 * Ok, cool. By the way, K&R doesn't explicitly forbid fflush(stdin), but undefined code is really never a good thing. Dysprosia 06:51, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

NPOV?
Hi there! Nice edit on Computer Programming... but one minor question. Is the NPOV all that important on Wikibooks? Sure, for history and govt, cultural stuff I'd understand, but we're talking technical stuff not ideological stuff right? If our main goal is to teach, aren't we inevitably forced to have some POV and to do just a teensy weensy little bit of steering? This is not a protest, but a minor ponder on the issue. Best, -- Kowey 17:01, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

-- You say we haven't discussed scope yet. We have, see Basic Concepts. Thunderbunny 01:20, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * Sorry, missed that. But there is a lot more that could be said about scope, but Ill be away for a while... Dysprosia

-- Okay. Sorry we had to have that editing war, but with regards to const vs. #define, const doesn't require any more memory accesses/register loading than #define. The compiler should find-and-replace each occurrence of the const with its value, just like #define does. And const obeys all the scope laws that #define doesn't. The K&R seems to back me up on this.

Also, it's definitely worth leaving all the stuff about unsigned, long, float and short in. Speaking as somebody with a lot of experience with embedded systems, there are lots of cases where having a floating-point variable that is one word in size would be useful. Also, unsigneds and longs are convenient when you need to express values that can't be represented with no qualifiers. Thunderbunny 02:56, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)


 * That's okay :) I didn't know that about const, and if you have K&R by your side, I believe you :)
 * It would be nice if you mentioned that kinda stuff about unsigned and longs and such, to motivate/enforce their importance.
 * Thanks for your help in the C book! :) Dysprosia 03:00, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I have a question for you; I've noted that you are also involved in Wikipedia. After a quick search I noticed no entry for grape seed oil. While my grape seed oil document is currently a stub, should it be contributed? Dbroadwell 03:04, 22 Dec 2003 (UTC)


 * If you wish, you should, but you may need to rewrite or reword it appropriately first to match the article style. Dysprosia 03:32, 22 Dec 2003 (UTC)


 * Thought so. There is little hope of me writing it into a book, so that gives the freedom for annother to do so. It will take a bit more research. Thanks. Dbroadwell 05:05, 22 Dec 2003 (UTC)