Welcome to the unofficial Khan Academy Javascript programming forum!

[Larry Serflaten]

The purpose of this forum is to provide programmers a place to ask questions about javascript programming on the Khan Academy website.

 

Why a separate forum?

 

One reason is to provide a more concise view of the technical questions being asked, opposed to the invites, chats, program postings, and other mixed comments that fill Khan Academy's own community discussion forum. Their forum shows only the most recent activity, scrolling older posts off the first page too rapidly for many to view all the posts since their last visit. Here, several discussions are listed by their subject lines on the first page, where you may open and view any topics that interest you.

 

Another reason to use a separate forum is that this forum provides a permanent archive of questions asked and their answers. With 1000's of questions asked and answered, this can be a valuable resource for many who arrive new to the Khan Academy website.

 

Before you post a question....

 

Try to find the answer yourself, or try to write the code yourself just as you think it should work. You can visit processingjs.org for documentation of their command structure, or you can see if there is a tutorial at Khan Academy that already discusses what you are looking for, and you can search this forum for topics similar to your own current issue.

 

Often looking over other questions and answers helps you to better understand what unique aspect of the problem is causing you the most difficulty. It may also happen that you find your question has been asked before, with an appropreate answer already provided. In that case (and this is the purpose of this forum) you get your answer right away, right when you need it!

 

When you post a question....

 

Give a short description of your problem in the subject line of the posting. (As best you can). Topics like: "How do I build an array of text?", "How can I re-use a defined shape?", "Is there a command to play sound files?" all reflect what it is you need help with. Topics like "Why doesn't this work?", "I'm lost!", and "Please help me!" do not help to define the issue. People who might know the answer may skip over such topics looking for something they can provide an answer for.

 

To help those people who are helping you, tell them what you have already tried, or post a short section of code to help explain the issue. You can also post a link to the program you are working on if that will help in the discussion.

 

Do realize that people come and go; they may not be online when you are online, You should expect there will be a delay of 1 day before most of the people who visit this group will have had a chance to see your message and respond.

 

When you post an answer....

 

Please be polite.   People of all ages are visiting this forum. Also remember that this forum is archived so your post may show up in a web search several months or several years from now. If they provide a link to the program they are working on, it may help to create a spin-off and alter their code to do as they want. Seeing their own code in working form will be easier to grasp than someone elses work from scratch.

 

Common etiquette.

 

As is common in most newsgroup postings reduce the original poster's message to just the question or section of text you are responding to at the top of your reply. Follow that with the text of your reply. That will allow people to acquaint themselves with what is being addressed, before they see your reply.  Please do not quote the entire message, quote the part you are responding to.  It is bad form to post a reply of one sentence followed by 50 (or more) sentences of quoted text.  That wastes space and network bandwidth downloading a large post that has only one sentence in the reply.  Quote at the top, and reply at the bottom of your posts. 

 

Remember the people here are trying to better their own situation by learning something new. Please be respectful and provide answers that you know will work. If you don't know the right answer, don't let them think you do while giving them false information. That will only lead to more frustration and disappointment on their part. If you don't know the answer, but do have a suggestion, let them know it is a suggestion. It may be your suggestion will lead them down a path that will remedy their situation. In other words, be honest, and try to be professional as you interact with other visitors to the forum.