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Read Me Updated: Before asking your question!

Hello Coders!

Code Forum is committed to helping every coder in achieving their goals no matter what level experience they are. With that said, we encourage coders to ask questions! However, we strongly advise that you format the question in such a way that it can be easily understood. Your thread/question should clearly state what you're trying to do and in what language, the problem and what have you tried already (if you found the solution, could you please provide the solution so it can help others with a similar problem).

But it all starts with your title, before posting your thread/question to ensure that you have an understandable title. A good, straight to point title. See some examples down below.

YES:
1. How do I link an external Stylesheet to my HTML document?
2. Is it possible to build a compiler using C++?
3. How do I create an if statement in JavaScript?


NO:
1. What should I change my name too?
2. What should my site name be?
3. Help!


When you have received some answers to your question and you have found a solution to your post; make sure to select the post as your solution by selecting the 'Check mark' on the post. For more information please review: https://www.codeforum.org/threads/code-forums-q-a-system-has-changed.617/
 
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Malcolm said:
2. Is it possible to build a compiler using C++?
Actually, I just want to add some stuff onto Questions like these.

Questions like "Can I build an OS In Only C?" or "How To Build A Security-Protocol?" are generally absurd Questions asked by people who think they can build anything right after they learn a Language or are still learning a Language. But, the thing is, why would you want to build another Compiler when you have GCC/G++? Why would you want to build another OS when you have Windows, MacOS X or GNU? And why build another Security/Encryption-Protocol when you have GPG and Signal?

While tasks like building a Compiler or a new Security/Encryption-Protocol are possible but require large amounts of time and work and effort, they are extremely difficult and as I said, are asked by people who think they can build anything after learning a Language. I would classify Questions like these in the No and if you happen to see any of them, I would recommend ignoring them and finding a much more realistic Question. But, classifying these sorts of Questions as No is up to @Malcolm.
 
I agree with @Daniel. It has to be more specific. If we have a lot of these "How to build a OS?" they will never get answered or members won't get the desired answered.
 
Malcolm said:
If we have a lot of these "How to build a OS?" they will never get answered or members won't get the desired answered.
Well, what I actually mean was Questions like "How To Build An OS?", should generally be ignored.

I know it's rude to ignore a Question but Questions like these are typically asked by amateurs and people who think they can build anything.

Malcolm said:
It has to be more specific.
But, this is what I and many others look for in a Question. Always be specific with the thing that you're talking about. Also, I always ask a lot of people to explain what they mean in greater detail. I cannot understand anything if it's not said in good detail. If it lacks detail, I can't understand it. If it's explained in great detail, I will be able to pick it up but I still may ask for more details if required.
 
Well, what I actually mean was Questions like "How To Build An OS?", should generally be ignored.

I know it's rude to ignore a Question but Questions like these are typically asked by amateurs and people who think they can build anything.
We shouldn't ignore any questions, the purpose of CF, is to help coders of all skill sets learn, build and share their work. We should be telling them that it isn't an ideal approach and advise that they need to work on something smaller or lead them in a better direction.

I get what you mean though it's frustrating but it's important that we encourage everyone and make them feel welcomed. Even if some questions are a little absurd.

But, this is what I and many others look for in a Question. Always be specific with the thing that you're talking about. Also, I always ask a lot of people to explain what they mean in greater detail. I cannot understand anything if it's not said in good detail. If it lacks detail, I can't understand it. If it's explained in great detail, I will be able to pick it up but I still may ask for more details if required.
Unfortunately, there's only so much we can do in cases like these. Although I do agree, I think help seekers need to be more specific it's just not everyone will get the same message, do you get what I mean? I'll look into having more notices and be on the lookout. But part of learning to code is learning how to troubleshoot/problem solve, so I think it is also good to kinda like refresh them when they don't have enough information in their thread.
 
Malcolm said:
We shouldn't ignore any questions, the purpose of CF, is to help coders of all skill sets learn, build and share their work. We should be telling them that it isn't an ideal approach and advise that they need to work on something smaller or lead them in a better direction.
I know that CF is about helping anyone, regardless of Question and their knowledge and skills. It's things like telling them to work on smaller that I just don't think about. Usually I just tend to tell others to ignore them and not bother. But, I do think that telling them to work on something smaller and easier is a better approach.

Malcolm said:
I get what you mean though it's frustrating but it's important that we encourage everyone and make them feel welcomed. Even if some questions are a little absurd.
I'd also like to encourage people to continue learning and improving. But when their dreams are too ambitious or absurd, I do start to question them. That isn't to say I have had absurd thoughts in the past but I'm over them now.

Malcolm said:
Unfortunately, there's only so much we can do in cases like these. Although I do agree, I think help seekers need to be more specific it's just not everyone will get the same message, do you get what I mean?
I take that you what you mean is that there is only so many details a person can share until you can help them. If so then that generally is true. As that person shares more details, how much details they can share decreases. And when that person who was asking the details no longer has anymore details then I guess they just have to work off of the details provided.

Help-Seekers not being specific is an issue that I do think needs to be improved upon here on CF. People on StackOverflow provide a lot of details in their Questions or can explain their Questions well enough in just a couple of sentences. And that's what I want to see here on CF.
 
I know that CF is about helping anyone, regardless of Question and their knowledge and skills. It's things like telling them to work on smaller that I just don't think about. Usually I just tend to tell others to ignore them and not bother. But, I do think that telling them to work on something smaller and easier is a better approach.
I'd also like to encourage people to continue learning and improving. But when their dreams are too ambitious or absurd, I do start to question them. That isn't to say I have had absurd thoughts in the past but I'm over them now.
In cases like these, I think the best approach would be breaking their thread in smaller chunks, so example "Hey, do this, this, this and this, and you'll be able to do this". Help guide them, as much as it may be far fetched, always try to do your best. Because who knows maybe it may help etc.
I take that you what you mean is that there is only so many details a person can share until you can help them. If so then that generally is true. As that person shares more details, how much details they can share decreases. And when that person who was asking the details no longer has anymore details then I guess they just have to work off of the details provided.

Help-Seekers not being specific is an issue that I do think needs to be improved upon here on CF. People on StackOverflow provide a lot of details in their Questions or can explain their Questions well enough in just a couple of sentences. And that's what I want to see here on CF.
What I mean is that most of us aren't taught to troubleshoot/problem solve, it's pretty much being thrown out in the wild. And I think what's going on is that they come to CF and just dump their code expecting us to figure it out. But what we need to do is to tell them that we need more information, start asking them questions and eventually they will learn to ask themselves that.

Hmm we need to start encouraging help seekers to provide more information, maybe the more we push and more we enforce rules it'll be the same here as Stack Overflow.
 
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Malcolm said:
In cases like these, I think the best approach would be breaking their thread in smaller chunks, so example "Hey, do this, this, this and this, and you'll be able to do this". Help guide them, as much as it may be far fetched, always try to do your best. Because who knows maybe it may help etc.
I never thought about breaking Threads into smaller chunks but that sounds like a good idea. I think that breaking it into smaller chunks is best for much bigger ideas like Frameworks, fully-fledged Software and Software that modifies the OS and it's underlying Source-Code.
 
I never thought about breaking Threads into smaller chunks but that sounds like a good idea. I think that breaking it into smaller chunks is best for much bigger ideas like Frameworks, fully-fledged Software and Software that modifies the OS and it's underlying Source-Code.
Exactly, for example:
My weather app idea: I want to build it.
Well first, I should probably learn what to build my app with, and second how to get the weather information and how to display it. So I should look into API etc.
 
Yeah, that's a really good example. Those are the kind of Questions that we're looking for.

Another thing is that it'd be great for the Help-Seeker themselves to look into things like the API while others are helping along.
 
Note: This only applies to questions with source-code in them.

A suggestion I'd like to make is to specify what it is that you're using and what environment is it that you're working in. What I mean by this, is that you always specify the following details in your post:
  • Text-Editor or IDE that you're using - Note that some issues may only happen in one text-editor or IDE, but won't occur in any other.
  • Frameworks/Libraries/APIs that you're working with
  • Your operating-system(Either MS Windows, OS X, or GNU/Linux. And in extremely rare circumstances, *BSD. No matter your operating-system, do specify your OS version/distribution. E.g. GNU/Linux Mint, MS Windows 10, or OS X 10.14) - Note that some issues only happen on certain operating-systems.
  • Programming-Language(s)
You don't have to follow this, but doing so would be good practice, as it then makes it easier for people to help you as now they know more details. The more details that you reveal about your issue, the easier it will be for somebody to help you.

And of course, do not forget to share your source-code and any error-messages you get(Yes. The error-messages, which people don't seem to share, despite how useful they are to track down errors. And yes, I know they may be vague and hard to understand sometimes, but they're still useful).
 
Your operating-system(Either MS Windows, OS X, or GNU/Linux. And in extremely rare circumstances, *BSD. No matter your operating-system, do specify your OS version/distribution. E.g. GNU/Linux Mint, MS Windows 10, or OS X 10.14) - Note that some issues only happen on certain operating-systems.
Yes, there are many problems that can occur under different operating systems, but working together via git is especially noticeable


And the most important: [UWSL]Use the code BBCode!![/UWSL]
 

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