Are SSCCEs off-topic?

Question

I was recently reviewing a question, which (if I had paid better attention to the question from the beginning, I may have noticed before answering) had a SSCCE as its primary code example.

At first glance the question is asking which way is the best way to make their UI scalable in the future. I first reviewed their actual code, then gave my opinion on the question they actually asked. I was later criticized for my review on their UI layout, (I assume) because the posted code was an SSCCE.

Should questions which contain SSCCEs be closed as off-topic?

Edit: I see that there are 7 open topics right now which contain the token SSCCE. If the consensus is that SSCCEs are off-topic, should we close all of these. And are there mesaures that can be taken to make it easier to identify posts that have been posted with SSCCE, like having them marked for a review or something. Or perhaps when the user is asking the question, if the post contains the token SSCCE to warn the user that posts with SSCCEs are generally offtopic.

I do understand that in some cases, you may remove bulky repetative portions of code to get to the heart of the code quicker, this question is more directed towards code written as an example

Answer 1

This question is off-topic, but I hesitate to make the generalization that all SSCCEs are automatically off-topic.

The matter hinges on whether the code is an simplified presentation of a more complex problem or whether it's hypothetical code.

This question starts out looking like it could be on-topic. The first implementation works, and the author even provided a helpful screenshot. Assume I will be having a list of 50+ "rows"… starts to push the limits of our real-code requirement, but whether that makes it off-topic is a judgement call. (We routinely handle questions where the author complains that the algorithm scales up poorly for large inputs.)

What does set off alarms, though, are:

• The second and third implementations are stub code or hypothetical code, as evidenced by the placeholder comments and labels. That is enough to make the question off-topic.

• The author's refusal to accept @BenVlodgi's review as a valid answer. That attitude runs afoul of our requirement that the author want to accept feedback on all aspects of the code.

  Unfortunately, the feedback-on-all-aspects criterion is often difficult to discern just by looking at the question. I also recently encountered a situation where the OP's attitude put the question off-topic. In both cases, the problem was the OP's

  • insistence that the code in the question was not to be reviewed as is, but that the code actually stood for something else that existed in the author's mind. In a sense, the code became hypothetical.
  • refusal to accept an answer because it "didn't address the question".

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In contrast, here is a question that is marginally on-topic, due to the code being a simplification of a real problem — a situation that was boldly acknowledged in the question. However, both parties treated the question as an academic exercise, and there was no fuss.

Answer 2

No, SSCCE's should not be closed as off-topic just because they are SSCCE's.

In fact, almost all code presented on Code Review is some form of trimmed down code to make it fit, to protect the innocent, etc. Many times 'extraneous' parts are ommitted (header files, java import statements, etc.).

An SSCCE is actually a better question than most.

The problem is not the SSCCE, the problem is what happens when the SSCCE is too simple, and does not adequately represent the problem the user is asking help for. Where suggestions from reviewing the code no longer apply to 'the real code' because the SSCCE has abstracted that away too much.

In other words, the SSCCE has crossed a line from being a good representation of 'real' code, to being a bad representation, and the SSCCE is now 'hypothetical'.

So, an SSCCE is reviewable, 'easily'. Whether the review is applicable to the real code is what needs to be determined. Only the asker can do that. If the review does not work, then it is the asker's fault for not making the SSCCE representative.

Answer 3

Well let's look at our 6 magic questions

1. Does my question contain code? (Please include the code in the question, not a link to it)
2. Did I write that code?
3. Is it actual code from a project rather than pseudo-code or example code?
4. Do I want the code to be good code, (i.e. not code-golfing, obfuscation, or similar)
5. To the best of my knowledge, does the code work?
6. Do I want feedback about any or all facets of the code?

1. Yes (well that one was not too hard was it?) ;)
2. Yes
3. NO: SSCCE - Short, Self Contained Correct Example

We can stop here. This question is off-topic as of our help center. Instead of answering, the correct approach would have been to close as off-topic -> stub code and have OP include the real code before reviewing ;)