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Writing a good ask a pro post

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#1 Lupus590

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Posted 21 July 2017 - 02:37 PM

So you've run into a problem with your code and need help; before you write that ask a pro post I ask you to consider a few points.

First, check if your problem has been encountered before.
Search for the problem, you may find someone else's question and it may help you. The search feature on the forums is not the most powerful so I would recommend Google. theoriginalbit wrote a tutorial on how to google effectively, I assume that other search engines have similar features.

Google may or may not lead you to some FAQ or Before You Ask posts, check these.

Remember to not necro post.

Second, make your post easy to read.
It's hard to solve a problem when you can't read the information you need, that information may be present in the post but it can be buried under noise. Try to keep your post short and clear, the easier it is to read the quicker the pros will be able to identify the issue and guide you to a solution.

Quite frequently ask a pro posts are "my code doesn't work" and little else. So I'm going to provide a template.

Quote

My code does this/produces this error... (different paragraphs with gaps help distinguish different parts of text)

I want it to do this...

Here's my code...
  and please use code tags

If your code is short, put it in code tags in the post. the tags look like this [.code] [./code] (you will need to remove the . on both of those) alternatively you can click the <> button under the smiley face on the post editor.

If your code is longer then please put it on pastebin or some similar website (remember to add a link to it in your post). Computercraft can upload to pastebin for you with the pastebin put command. If the code is very long then you may want to post a snippet of where you think the error is.

Give your posts helpful titles, try to describe your issue in one sentence.

I've mentioned errors, if you get an error then post it, screenshots are best. The format usually is filename:lineNumber: error description and all of this information is needed to be useful.

Edited by Lupus590, 31 March 2019 - 01:49 PM.


#2 Bomb Bloke

    Hobbyist Coder

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Posted 21 July 2017 - 11:46 PM

Don't speak in terms of "what doesn't happen". Saying something "doesn't work" isn't anywhere near as describing what does happen. For example, if you run a script and your cursor simply moves down to the next line of the command prompt, without generating an error, then say so!

It's also worth noting that "abbreviated" errors don't help people help you. For example, it's common to see people saying they "got a nil error" - but there are multiple different errors that involve the term "nil", and they mean different things; it's also not helpful to leave out the line numbers.

When posting long lengths of code, it's helpful to include comments at the parts you think are causing your problem.

Don't assume people are going to run your code in order to see what happens. Personally, I very seldom do that - most of the time I can see the issue just by reading the code and the user's explanation as to what's happening. If the user hasn't bothered to provide an adequate explanation, then I'm unlikely to bother putting any effort into helping them, either.

http://www.catb.org/...-questions.html





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