How to ask Smart Questions

[Sean Corfield]

I know Mark Mandel frequently reminds people about this web resource
so I figured I'd do the same. It will really will help you get more
useful responses to questions (on all forums, not just here). And,
yes, this is a response to several recent posts that have not exactly
followed the steps outlined below... :)

http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

In particular:

"Be precise and informative about your problem

* Describe the symptoms of your problem or bug carefully and clearly.

* Describe the environment in which it occurs (machine, OS,
application, whatever). Provide your vendor's distribution and release
level (e.g.: “Fedora Core 7”, “Slackware 9.1”, etc.).

* Describe the research you did to try and understand the problem
before you asked the question.

* Describe the diagnostic steps you took to try and pin down the
problem yourself before you asked the question.

* Describe any possibly relevant recent changes in your computer or
software configuration.

* If at all possible, provide a way to reproduce the problem in a
controlled environment.

Do the best you can to anticipate the questions a hacker will ask, and
answer them in advance in your request for help.

Giving hackers the ability to reproduce the problem in a controlled
environment is especially important if you are reporting something you
think is a bug in code. When you do this, your odds of getting a
useful answer and the speed with which you are likely to get that
answer both improve tremendously.

Simon Tatham has written an excellent essay entitled How to Report
Bugs Effectively http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html
- I strongly recommend that you read it."
--
Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN
An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/
World Singles, LLC. -- http://worldsingles.com/

"Perfection is the enemy of the good."
-- Gustave Flaubert, French realist novelist (1821-1880)