Why do novices often fail to answer questions in the programming community, and even get ridiculed?

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Learning programming will inevitably encounter problems , If you encounter problems, you need to go online for help . However, many students complained to me , say No one answers questions on the Internet , Some also received some unfriendly replies . I myself have witnessed similar posts on regular forums . So that someone said , The programmer community is just not friendly to newcomers , Unwilling to help new people , It's even afraid that others will learn to grab jobs .

I want to correct my name , Programmers are mostly simple , And this may be The most sharing group on the planet . But in this full of reason 、 In the group of logic supremacy , Has its own set of rules . When a person who doesn't know the rules appears in the Group , Often be “ Teach to be a man ”.

If you have encountered such a problem , Or plan to grow up in the programming community in the future , Please be sure to look at what I'm going to say next ：

How to correctly ask questions in the programming community ？

Most of the questions that can't be answered satisfactorily or even cause dissatisfaction , It is the problem itself . I have answered questions on the Internet for so many years , It is often deeply troubled . Ask a good question , For the questioner and the respondent , It helps a lot .

Preparation before questioning

Before you go online for help , Ask yourself first 2 A question ：

1. I Search for Have you ？

2. I Check Have you ？

Learn programming , You're not alone . Almost all the pits you encounter , Have been trampled by predecessors , Search and you will find the answer . All kinds of documents 、 The content in the tutorial will also be included in the web page results . The key to search is how to describe the problem , So learn to read the newspaper wrong , Can find the key information in the error report . More search tips , Please refer to the previous article 《 Programming beginners how to use search engines 》.

There are two words in programming ：RTFM、STFW, I won't explain the meaning , Leave it to yourself . When you see someone reply to similar words under your question , Think about whether you have searched .

If you can't find your problem online , There are several possibilities ：

1. Keywords are not selected accurately ;

2. You do have a special situation ;

3. You made some low-level mistakes . For beginners ,3 More likely . So please check yourself , Is the word spelled correctly 、 Punctuation is not English 、 Indent the space, right 、 Whether the brackets and quotation marks are in pairs 、 Is the file path correct ……

Exclude low-level errors , You should also position your mistakes , Try to narrow the scope , Add necessary output . This will also greatly facilitate the respondent when asking questions . And I often tell people , When you output all the necessary values and see clearly , Usually the problem is obvious . About debug The technique of , Refer to the previous article 《 Development 5 minute , debugging 2 Hours - What's your problem ？》.

The content of the question

A good question , Should be accuracy 、 Specifically 、 concise 、 complete , That is, we should clearly express the information involved in the problem , Don't mix irrelevant noise .

say concretely , These kinds of information should usually be included ：

1. The manifestation of the problem

2. platform and edition

3. Output Error message

4. Relevant part Code

It's better to attach your Screen capture （ Avoid mistakes you don't realize ） And the intermediate variable Output （ Convenient for respondents , It also shows that you have tried ）.

In particular, the attached code . For beginners , best At the same time, provide screenshots and code text , The screenshot shows the real situation on the computer , Words are convenient for others to reproduce . If your code is short , Just send it all ; If it is a project with many code files , Please make a preliminary positioning first , Send only the code of key parts .

If you are in the Forum 、 Post on the Q & a website , It's important to choose a good title . Briefly describe the problem clearly in the title Far better than “ For help ！ Online, etc. ！ Urgent ” This meaningless Title .

The form of questioning

When asking questions , Choose The right place , Say the right thing .

For example, you ask beginners questions in an advanced forum , They are often excluded . The reverse is not appropriate . It's a pity that , In programming , Advanced 、 More in-depth forums , There are fewer beginner forums . So if you want to , Welcome to bbs.crossincode.com Ask questions , Of course, don't forget the points mentioned above .

As for what is appropriate , This is difficult to grasp . in general , Politeness is always good , No one wants to answer arrogance 、 Rude questions . But sometimes , Efficiency is more important than politeness . such as StackOverflow No greeting 、 thank , Because it will bring invalid information . You just need to describe the problem accurately 、 Adopt excellent answers . Again , When you ask someone a question , Directly explain the problem locally , Never say “ Hello , are you there ？”, Wait until you reply “ May I ask you a question ？” Leave a message like this . Maybe you think it's polite , But for others , Things that can be answered once , Dragged into hours , Maybe I don't care about you at all .

And when the problem you posted online is finally solved , Attach the solution description to the problem , According to community rules Adopt / give the thumbs-up Useful answers , It is a recommended practice . For the respondent , This is more polite than a verbal compliment .

Taboo of asking questions

It says some suggestions , If you don't understand , So remember , Don't ask questions like this ：

1. Problems that can be solved in one step . such as “Python How to read the contents of a file in ？”

2. X-Y problem . So-called X-Y problem , Is that you have to solve X problem , You think you can use Y The solution , Then you ask how to achieve Y, But in fact X There is a more suitable solution to the problem . such as “ How do I get the back of a string 3 position ？”, In fact, what he wants to solve is “ How to get the file type of a file ？”

3. General and abstract problems . such as “ Can I learn to Python？”. This question is frequently asked , But this should not ask others , Ask yourself .

4. Don't guess the reason , Even claimed to be someone else's code bug. You need to objectively describe and analyze the problem . such as “ I lose more than 10 A large number is wrong , Is it right? Python There is a problem on my computer ？”

5. Don't confuse multiple problems , Distinguish cause and effect . It is normal for the code to have more than one error , If someone else's method makes your error report change , It shows that it has played a role in the previous problem , This situation needs further analysis , Instead of immediately replying “ It still can't be changed according to your method ”.（ This is really impolite , It will make the respondent no longer want to talk to you ）

6. In an open forum 、 Discussion groups 、 Q & a website , As far as possible Don't send private messages 、 add friends The way to ask questions .（ in fact , This approach is mostly ineffective ）

7. Don't expect others to debug for you bug、 homework 、 Development .

One An example of a bad problem ：
Who knows Python Help me see what the problem is ？
（ A screenshot of dozens of lines of code ）

An example of a good problem ：
My program compares the size of input and variables , The result is wrong , Please tell me why ？
I am a Python3
Report errors ：TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'int' and 'str'
（ Code + Screenshot of output 、 Code text ）

An example of a better problem ：
My program compares the size of input and variables , The result is wrong , Please tell me why ？
I am a Windows Under the Python 3.7
Report errors ：TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'int' and 'str'
The tip is 11 That's ok ：if answer < num: 
I added... To the front print, Both variables have values .
（ Code + Screenshot of output 、 Code text ）

The essence of questioning is still thinking . If you can ask a good question , It must be the result of thinking about the problem . This is also an exercise for you . Ask questions directly without thinking , Both wasted the opportunity to exercise , It is also difficult to get a satisfactory reply .

On the other hand , There is no such thing as a free lunch （ There may be , But someone must have paid ）, Don't take others' answers for granted . therefore Please respect the labor of others , And try to make others happy to answer you . Don't ask bad questions Is the most basic requirement .

Said so much , Don't let it stop you from asking questions . What to ask is still to ask , Dare to ask questions and discuss , Even on StackOverflow Wait for English website to ask . Otherwise, how to improve yourself ？ Not only ask , And answer ,“ teach ” It's the best “ learn ”. When you can explain something clearly to others , You really understand it . It has given back to the community , I've improved myself , Why not ？

Crossin Good questions are always welcome in our programming classroom .

Last , There is a classic article on programming , I recommend it to you ：
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
【 Chinese version 】 The wisdom of asking questions
https://github.com/FredWe/How-To-Ask-Questions-The-Smart-Way/blob/master/README-zh_CN.md

PS： Content of this article , Not only for programming .

thank forward and give the thumbs-up The fellow ~

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