archie flockhart (11/23/2011)
Also, maybe this is maybe not the place to debate this, but is "researching" the question before answering really in the spirit of the QOTD ? Is it any different to just copying the code and running it ?
Yes, it is. In order to tick the right answer(s) after running the code you don't even have to understand why something happened the way it did.
When I research a question, I 1) have to make sure I understand the question (not having English as my mother tongue adds some difficulties sometimes :-)) and 2) by then answering the question I can verify whether the research results I came up with are correct, or whether I've picked the wrong path.
Personally I think that the spirit of the QotD is to learn and whether the learning occurs before or after answering the question is not so important for me.
When I get one of the (many) questions where I don't know the answer, I prefer to try to work out what I think a likely answer would be. I can look at the explanations later, but often learn more by getting it wrong and then finding out why.
I guess that depends on what kind of learning type you are; I prefer to investigate for myself--and get some extra approval by finding out that the author used the same source as I found the most relevant.
Often enough I'd still get it wrong 😛 and continue the learning process by following the explanations given.
Just my 2 cents,
Michael