forums

December 16, 2008 2:30 PM

Are there any other answer forums similar to, or as good as Ask Metafilter? And what is the best/most reliable C programming forum?

I know there is Yahoo Answers, but its not nearly as good. I like how you have to pay for this one, and only can post once a week which obviously makes it work.

posted by amsterdam63 to education (7 comments total)

Dude.

comp.lang.c.moderated, in which you can literally get your homework critiqued by the best C programmers (authors, members of the Standard Committee, etc.) in the business.

You can also get flamed pretty badly, so read before posting, don't ask questions about your compiler, provide the smallest functional example program fragment you can, and don't top-post. Oh, and main returns int.
posted by orthogonality at 2:45 PM on December 16, 2008

Previously: 1, 2, 3, and I'll repeat my suggestion of the Wikipedia Reference Desk. (IMO, very good on factual type questions, less good on "recommend something" type questions, and they don't really do RelationshipFilter questions.) Can't help on the C programming part, though.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 2:47 PM on December 16, 2008 [2 favorites]

Asking about C programming is a little like asking about the best places for tips on writing in English. There are too many answers to be really useful. The C USENET groups are indeed a great resource but I would suggest you go somewhere specific for whatever platform you're developing on - Windows, UNIX, whatever.

Also, who programs in C anymore? ;)
posted by GuyZero at 2:47 PM on December 16, 2008

Stack Overflow is a great question-and-answer site for programmers.
posted by lunchbox at 3:01 PM on December 16, 2008

I know there is Yahoo Answers

There's also Yahoo's Groups discussion. Accessible most easily through Nabble, the single greatest repository of computer-related forums.

Oh, and main returns int.

Main is void. VOID I tell you!
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:31 PM on December 16, 2008

This is the best general place. The only time I've ever found boards better are for specific topics, creditboards.com for credit questions and Chowhound for restaurants.

It seems that others have answered your programming question above.
posted by hazyspring at 6:08 PM on December 16, 2008

Main is void. VOID I tell you!

Heh. That's actually the biggest problem with programming forums. Your simple question inevitably gets derailed by uncivil people arguing over some esoterica, while you never get a good answer.
posted by smackfu at 6:53 PM on December 16, 2008