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I have answered to four Scheme-related code review requests on the site, which are for proposed solutions to exercises from a famous text book Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (usually abbreviated SICP) which has been used at MIT for a long time in undergraduate education. I have also taught this book in my own university in the past.

Is it appropriate for users to post solutions to exercises from well-known textbooks on Code Review, and for other users to help to improve them? I wonder if this is good citizenship as it makes the life of professors harder as this opens a new, easily accessible medium for getting canned, high-quality solutions from a centralized source.

Should Code Review ban solutions to text book exercises from being submitted?

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My question is whether it is appropriate for users to post solutions to exercises from well-known text books on Code Review

It can be, if they are posted with the honest intent of having a working solution reviewed for subjective and aesthetic feedback -- and not getting free homework help.

I wonder if this is good citizenship as it makes the life of professors harder as this opens a new, easily accessible medium for getting canned, high-quality solutions from a centralized source.

Certainly this would be a problem on the greater internet regardless of our site's stance on this issue?

Regardless, I think it is 100% fair to ask the poster to justify their intent and it absolutely must be a WORKING, SOLVED code sample to start with. Code Review is NOT for code that does not work.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Isn't the issue less the people who are asking the question, and more people who find the answers on the side and simply submit them as their own? \$\endgroup\$ Commented May 23, 2011 at 4:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ Winston, the issue is both those people and the teachers who make no effort to determine whether or not a student has simply found their solution online rather than doing it themselves. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Aug 17, 2014 at 13:55

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