From: brnstnd@nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein)
Newsgroups: comp.programming
Subject: --- comp.programming charter: read before you post (weekly notice)
Date: 16 Aug 92 04:00:12 GMT
Organization: IR

comp.programming	Programming issues that transcend languages and OSs.

It is a matter of courtesy to read a USENET group for at least a month
before posting anything to it. You should be familiar with this article
and with all the regular announcements in news.announce.newusers. A
newsgroup is like a crowded meeting hall filled with people who want to
talk about similar subjects. Chances are that if you just stick your
head in and shout, you'll be saying something totally inappropriate or
asking a question which someone else asked last week, and everyone will
be angry at you. To avoid this, _read_ before you post.

What you _should_ post here (the charter):

	comp.programming is an unmoderated group for discussions of
	programming issues which are not limited to a specific machine,
	operating system, or language: in particular, algorithms of all
	types. ``Programming issues'' means _practical_ programming
	issues: it is considered very bad form here to discuss issues
	with which you do not have direct programming experience.

What you _should not_ post here:

	Any issue which is limited to a specific machine, operating
	system, or language is completely inappropriate for this group.
	If you are programming under UNIX, use comp.unix.programmer. If
	you are programming a PC, use comp.os.msdos.programmer. If you
	are programming a Mac, use comp.sys.mac.programmer. If you are
	programming an Amiga, use comp.sys.amiga.programmer. If you are
	programming a game and think that your question is of interest
	to other game programmers, use rec.games.programmer. If you're
	absolutely sure that your question is on the use of the C
	language---it wouldn't make sense if you were using a different
	language---try comp.lang.c. If your question is a meta-question
	which has to do with features of various programming languages,
	use comp.lang.misc. If your question has to do with theoretical
	results which have to do with computer science rather than
	programming, try comp.theory. Finally, if you're sure that your
	question would make sense under a variety of operating systems,
	running on a variety of machines, and in a wide variety of
	programming languages, then comp.programming is probably right.

	Note added 3/9/92: If you want source code for something, you'll
	get better response in comp.sources.wanted, which was created to
	handle such requests.

Other comp.programming conventions:

	It's often difficult to talk about programming without quoting
	the results of that programming---i.e., code. There is nothing
	wrong with using a particular language to present code samples,
	as long as they _could_ have been expressed in various other
	languages. However, you are less likely to have your question
	understood if you illustrate it with a choice segment of APL
	than if you use pseudo-code, Algol, C, etc.

For future reference, comp.programming passed by a vote of 403-47. It
was created 3/1/92.

---Dan
Newsgroups: comp.programming,alt.msdos.programmer,comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer,comp.unix.programmer