These guidelines on getting help are provided courtesy of Prof. Hybinette.
They are several years old, but still true and to the point.
Just replace "maria" with your own login id, g++ with gcc if applying to
a C program, and ajax with odin.  --  RWR 6/8/09
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear class,

When asking for help and assistance several of you do not give enough
details of your problem. This takes time away from helping other
fellow students, the TA, and the instructor.

Here are some guidelines that will improve your chances to get a
speedy reply.

Please follow these guidelines when sending email or coming for
office-visits.



 (1) Come prepared.

 (2) Make sure that you give a detailed and descriptive report
     of your problem.

        (a)  Details "may" include:
             output of your interaction with your program.

            Example Interaction:
                {ajax:maria:25} make clean
                rm -f core *.o a.out Driver
                {ajax:maria:26} make Driver
                g++ -g -c -o Driver.o Driver.cpp
                g++ -g -c -o Coordinate.o Coordinate.cpp
                g++ -g -c -o Rectangle.o Rectangle.cpp
                g++ -g -o Driver Driver.o Coordinate.o Rectangle.o -ansi
                {ajax:maria:27} Driver

 (3) filter down the problem (this is also an excellent method to
     debug code).

        (a) filter down the "code" to a compilable module
           (or un-compilable module -- if that is your specific
            problem) that illustrates your problem.

            --> REMOVE all extraneous code.

        (b) bring or submit the "module" in a small .cpp file that
            includes a Makefile

Other HINTS in finding BUGS in programs:

 (1) Always use the debug flag "-g" flag when compiling code.
        See Example interaction in guideline "2" that uses the debug flag.


 (2) Use the debugger "gdb" to hunt down bugs in your code.
        For more details on gdb see links available from the
        "resources" sub-page of the course main page.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Examples of un-sufficient information:


    Example 1:
	 
        > My program doesnt work and I followed the instructions given
        > in class.   Here is my program.


	
    Example 2: 
     	> I have a driver.cpp, Rectangle2.cpp, Point.cpp, Rectangle2.h, and 
	> Point.h.  The driver file runs the program.
	> 
	> There are .o files from my .cpp files but I can't get the program 
	> to run.  I tried to follow what you said in Re: Makefile help but 
	> neither 
 	> way worked.
	> 
	> Please help,
	>

     It is impossible for me to tell you your problem from the above
     descriptions.

     For example 2, it may be that 
	(1) you dont have an executable in your directory, e.g. the files
	    did not link.
	(2) you may have an executable, but your path variable is not
	    looking in your "current" directory (you need to add
	    a "./" prefix to your run command (see (6) below).


     appropriate details for example 2 are listed below:

      (1) give me a listing of the files of the directory on ajax
          where you are developing your program.
     
  For example:
  {ajax:maria:3} ls -l
   total 64
        -rw-r--r--    1 maria   maria        918 Feb 10 09:42 Coordinate.cpp
        -rw-r--r--    1 maria   maria       1253 Feb 10 09:41 Coordinate.h
        -rw-r--r--    1 maria   maria       1524 Feb 17 10:22 Coordinate.o
        -rwxr-xr-x    1 maria   maria      19949 Feb 17 10:22 Driver*
        -rw-r--r--    1 maria   maria        410 Feb 10 09:46 Makefile


 (2) tell me the output of the below command:
        Example:
        {ajax:maria:241} which g++
        /opt/sfw/bin//g++

 (3) give me the content of your makefile (that includes tabs and end of line
     characters):

        For example:
	{ajax:maria:263} cat -vet Makefile

        CC = g++$
        CFLAGS = -g$
        $
        all : Driver$
        $
        RSRC = ^IDriver.c \$
        ^ICoordinate.c \$
        ^IRectangle.c$
        $
        ROBJS = $(RSRC:%.c=%.o)$
        $
        clean :$
        ^Irm -f core *.o a.out Driver $
        $
        Driver : $(ROBJS)$
        ^I$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o Driver $(ROBJS) -ansi $
        $
        %.o : %.cpp$
        ^I$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $@ -ansi$


  (4) give me the ouput of the make command:

        For example:
        {ajax:maria:243} make clean
        rm -f core *.o a.out Driver 
        {ajax:maria:244} make Driver
        g++ -g -c Driver.cpp -o Driver.o -ansi
        g++ -g -c Coordinate.cpp -o Coordinate.o -ansi
        g++ -g -c Rectangle.cpp -o Rectangle.o -ansi
        g++ -g -o Driver Driver.o Coordinate.o Rectangle.o -ansi 
        {ajax:maria:245} 

  (5) after compiling, give me a listing of your program (see example 
	question (1)).

  (6) if there is a listing of "an executable", i.e. a file that ends with
      a star, as in the above:
                -rwxr-xr-x    1 maria   maria      19949 Feb 17 10:22 Driver*

      tell me the output when you run your executable with the "./" as 
      a prefix, 

        For example running the Executable "Driver" as:
        ./Driver
------------------------------------------------------------------------------