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How to Ask Questions About Programming
You have to at least give n% of effort
Programming isn’t about writing code. Programming is about problem-solving. The actual code, anyone can learn. If you are good at problem-solving, the coding part is basically learning syntax and how to search for functions, libraries, and tricks to solve the task.
Questions that don’t deserve an answer
This article is based on a series of real questions asked in various Facebook groups. The questions are legit, it’s just how you approach your audience I want to look into.
If your question is along these lines, why should anyone bother spending their personal time helping you?
“How do I solve this?” (Random screen shot of an obvious school assignment.)
“How do I do this? I have tried everything.” (Clearly didn’t try everything in the whole world.)
If you just dump out a question where you expect people to do all the work for you, you’re being disrespectful. You’re basically asking random strangers to do all the work for you while you sit back and harvest from their work.
Example 1: Area of a Triangle
“How do I calculate the area of two triangles making up a square in Python?”
The autoreply to all questions should be, “What did you try so far?” (Or, if it’s a philosophical question, “What are your thoughts on the subject so far?” Please post your current code when asking questions.
If your answer is “I haven’t tried anything yet. I just have issues solving it,” please come back when you have tried something.
The example above is a terrible way to ask that question. Here’s what I consider a good way to ask a question:
“How do I calculate the area of two triangles making up a square in Python? So far I have tried the following:
The math behind the area I believe is pretty straightforward. A square has equal sides, so we know the base and the height because…
