• schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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      55 minutes ago

      Honestly the question as asked is unambiguous: “write words in alphabetical order” cannot mean anything else than apple, fox, log, pond, pumpkin, river. If what was provided here were the expected answer, the wording should be “write each of the following words with its letters sorted by alphabetical order”.

      • Michal@programming.dev
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        48 minutes ago

        Could be understood as “take these words, and write them out in alphabetical order”. It’s not specifically stated whether letters inside those words should also be sorted or not.

        We take it for granted that we have so much experience communicating, we can infer the meaning without full instruction, but children are still acquiring this knowledge and sometimes take things literally with hilarious results.

        • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
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          41 minutes ago

          Of course, not blaming children for misunderstanding this; but if this were a software requirement, an adult software developer should be able to understand it correctly.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    1 hour ago

    I like it. He didn’t meet the assignment but he proved his knowledge. Now to see if they mark on knowledge learnt or subjugation.

    • wpb@lemmy.world
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      39 minutes ago

      They did fail to demonstrate knowledge of lexicographical order, which this exercise seems to be aiming for with the inclusion of pond and pumpkin, so I think it’s a bit cynical to consider failing the student on this a means of opression or subjugation.

  • webpack@ani.social
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    3 hours ago

    list.toSorted() vs list.map(word => word.toSorted())

    (note that you can’t actually do string.toSorted() in js you have to convert into a list and back)

    • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org
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      20 hours ago

      FTFY:

      5. the
      6. the

      The alphabet provided ends with X. However, you apparently remove duplicates so maybe just cross out the last row?

      • BillyClark@piefed.social
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        19 hours ago

        One important skill for school is to look at the entire question so that you can understand what the teacher is asking for, even if they don’t format the question exactly right.

        In this case, your answer would not fit into the 6 spaces provided for the answer.

        So you have to ask yourself what they meant by “Write the following words”. Since “the” is the same word repeated twice, once you’ve written “the” after 5, then I could argue that “the” has already been written.

        Therefore, if there are only six blanks for the answer, looking at the entire question, I argue that the answer I provided is most likely correct.

    • melfie@lemy.lol
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      15 hours ago

      Correct. It’s obviously supposed to be an ordered set, and that’s why there are 6 slots for 6 unique words.

  • wewbull@feddit.uk
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    20 hours ago

    The question is poorly worded. It asks for words in the order they come in the alphabet. Words aren’t in the alphabet. Letters are in the alphabet, so they reordered the letters.

    • floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      15 hours ago

      That’s not being pedantic, it’s just wrong. Do you not call the order of words in a dictionary “alphabetical order”?

      • wewbull@feddit.uk
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        3 hours ago

        Of course, but this is a 6? year old. Read the question as a child would.

        Put the following words in alphabetical order

        All fine, but if they don’t know the word “alphabetical” the clarification is…

        (The order they come in the alphabet)

        Confusing. “They” refers to the words and alphabet contains letters. If it had been “dictionary” and not “alphabet” then that would be clear.

  • aaaaaaaaargh@feddit.org
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    16 hours ago

    With more than three repetitions of the same algorithm the kid should’ve been automating the process.

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    It makes sense if not taught the conventions of alphabetizing first. Kids don’t know what they don’t know.

    Mr. Rogers understood this on a deep level.

    • Log in | Sign up@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      I couldn’t figure out what the clue was that the kid would be a programmer. Surely any kid could have gotten this right? Then I read your comment and it all made sense. Thank you.

      And yes, yes I am a programmer.

      • Are you asking if I was confused how they did something wrong? Yes.

        Are you asking if “apple, fox, log, pond, pumpkim, river” was the intended answer? Also probably yes (but I didn’t make it, so I can’t be sure).

        • marlowe221@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          I was sent to the principals office several times in elementary school because my teachers thought I was trying to be a smart ass. Because I would do what they literally, exactly asked me to do, and not what they apparently meant.

          I was always very confused because I honestly believed I was doing my best to follow instructions.

          It didn’t help that I grew up in the American southeast, a region where patterns of speech are very indirect and lean heavily on idioms and metaphors.

          I was in middle school before I figured out what was happening and did not get into trouble in that way anymore. I’m in my 40s now but I’m still a literal-first thinker. And yeah, I’m a programmer.