Questions tagged [asking-questions]

This tag is for questions specifically about the process of asking questions on Code Review; e.g. how to ask, whether specific questions are appropriate, etc.

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85 votes
4 answers
9k views

How to get the best value out of Code Review - Asking Questions

I have a project I am working on, and I would like some, or all of it reviewed, how can I ask for this review on Code Review in a way that produces the best possible value? This is not about a ...
64 votes
5 answers
4k views

Checklist for how to write a good Code Review question

Many questions of new users lack some parts or common style of the site. There already are some meta questions that aggregate tips on this issue but letting new users walk through all of them is ...
Nobody moving away from SE's user avatar
43 votes
1 answer
1k views

How to post a follow-up question?

Sometimes I stumble upon follow-up questions, where code is being posted again after having gone through a review (or two). Examples of possible sets of follow up questions: Find missing numbers - ...
Simon Forsberg's user avatar
29 votes
4 answers
2k views

Why is hypothetical example code off-topic for Code Review?

As stated in the Help Center, one of the criteria for a question to be on topic is: Is it actual code from a project rather than pseudo-code or hypothetical code? Details matter! In order to give ...
20 votes
5 answers
410 views

Can we ask reviewers to *not* focus on something?

Our Help Center says: Do I want feedback about any or all facets of the code? However, sometimes we might have some code that we are aware has flaws in it, or we would just for one reason or ...
Simon Forsberg's user avatar
17 votes
4 answers
361 views

Should a post with no specific question(s) imply a general review?

I've started thinking about this more after seeing this question. I'm sometimes tempted to vote such questions as not clear what you're asking, but I also feel that it's not quite needed for this ...
Jamal's user avatar
  • 34.8k
35 votes
6 answers
617 views

Is code ever clean enough? - Can there be too many follow-up questions?

Some posts can at times have several follow-up questions, sometimes a couple of follow-up questions on the same day. All this brings us to the question of Can there be too many follow-up questions? ...
Simon Forsberg's user avatar
18 votes
4 answers
377 views

Should comparisons of code snippets be closed as "not seeking a code review"?

I've been seeing some "A vs. B" questions for a while, and I'm not sure if they're considered on-topic for this site. Many of these questions are not asking for a review, but which code snippet is ...
Jamal's user avatar
  • 34.8k
17 votes
3 answers
571 views

Does my code example need to be compilable/runnable?

I'm thinking of posting a question here, but am unsure how I should do so. The question is about comparing the performance of a piece of pure Python code vs a hybrid Python/C++ piece of code, glued ...
16 votes
2 answers
270 views

Are we allowed to ask questions about just regular expressions?

Are we allowed to ask questions just about regular expressions?
Ethan Bierlein's user avatar
25 votes
5 answers
353 views

Do one-liners and other narrowed-down code qualify for a code review?

Every once in a blue moon, a question gets posted (often as a new user's first post) where the OP is asking a quite specific question about very minimalistic code, for example: ...
Mathieu Guindon's user avatar
35 votes
3 answers
581 views

How well is "malicious" code accepted here?

I recently asked a question that could possibly be used for malicious purposes. I tried to whittle the code down as much as I could to a "base" program so that a script kiddie wouldn't stumble across ...
syb0rg's user avatar
  • 21.8k
29 votes
1 answer
508 views

What makes a good question? [duplicate]

I think it would be a good idea to compile a list of guidelines on how to ask good question. What information should be present, how to structure it, etc.
sepp2k's user avatar
  • 8,992
21 votes
3 answers
432 views

Is it okay to add someone else's linked code to the question?

Some questions link to the code they want reviewed, which is against site policy. Should one edit the code into the question in these cases? The problem I see is that all content on Stack Exchange ...
Cactus Golov's user avatar
  • 3,229
18 votes
3 answers
266 views

Reviews of code not stored here

This question is inspired by a question I just saw: Review website done after one week of learning HTML and CSS How do we want to handle these issues? We wanted to avoid pastebins since having the ...
Mark Loeser's user avatar
  • 1,773
14 votes
1 answer
259 views

How should one deal with code asking "Is this correct?" when it is in fact correct?

I'm wondering what a good guideline is when dealing with questions asking (primarily or completely) about correctness. Generally this is not what Code Review is about. However, when the code is ...
Yuushi's user avatar
  • 11k
17 votes
2 answers
605 views

Should [programming-challenge] questions require a summary of the challenge?

Project Euler has been offline for several days, after the site was hacked. Problem is, a large number of our questions relate to Project Euler, and many of them do not contain any description of the ...
200_success's user avatar
16 votes
2 answers
284 views

Stop mentioning major concerns in title

On the Ask a Question page, users are currently faced with this: state the purpose of your code, and mention any major concerns. I have recently started commenting on many questions with this ...
Simon Forsberg's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
235 views

Should mostly working but a little bit broken code stay or be deleted?

I posted the question Parsing structured text in Java At first I thought it was working, later I have found a bug in the code. Should it stay or should it be deleted? Update: I have fixed the bug in ...
yasar's user avatar
  • 1,497
43 votes
12 answers
948 views

What would Clippy say?

We have a question closure rate of ~30%. That's a significant burden on moderators and users who help triage the questions. While some questions can indeed be very difficult to triage, there are ...
200_success's user avatar
19 votes
4 answers
327 views

How much research effort is expected when posting a Code Review question?

On Stack Overflow, the community consensus for research before asking is: A lot. An absurd amount. More than you think you are capable of. In fact, asking a question on Stack Overflow is the ...
200_success's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
222 views

Reviewing AI based on how it performs

On Code Golf is is common to see a king-of-the-hill question where you have to implement an AI based on the rules given in the question. So then I got to thinking - "If I developed an AI for one of ...
syb0rg's user avatar
  • 21.8k
14 votes
3 answers
161 views

"How secure..." questions - Code Review vs. Information Security SE

Recently I have seen a whole lot of questions in the form of "How secure is this hashing", "How secure is my keygen?", "How secure is my form?". We do have a quite popular security tag, with 159 ...
Simon Forsberg's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
173 views

Having an entire project reviewed

I have a small project I'm working on in an area I'm not comfortable with (web development). I would like someone to review my code. I can try to split it up, but I would prefer if someone looked at ...
Tums's user avatar
  • 85
8 votes
1 answer
136 views

Can I ask a question about overall architecture without much specific code?

I have code, but my question is about overall design patterns. Ideally, I would ask a question describing the design decisions made in my project but would have minimal actual code samples. Is this ...
cemulate's user avatar
  • 131
27 votes
4 answers
401 views

Code Review Clippy

A while back, y'all asked for some warnings for folks asking questions here: What would Clippy say? After thorough review (mostly by animuson & JNat), we've determined that the following warnings ...
Shog9's user avatar
  • 101
22 votes
1 answer
169 views

Does preventing exact duplicate titles makes sense here?

When editing the title of Multiple FizzBuzz from a file, I first wanted to make the title "FizzBuzz from a file" but that exact title already exists which showed an error message: Considering our ...
Simon Forsberg's user avatar
20 votes
9 answers
260 views

Help spot deficiencies in our Help Center

Regular participants will be familiar with procedures and practices on Code Review. For example, we have rules against asking hypothetical questions appending to or modifying the question after ...
200_success's user avatar
15 votes
4 answers
112 views

Questions about documentation

Are questions about writing/improving documentation appropriate and on-topic for Code Review? And if so, should there be a documentation tag? Let's be clear--I'm not talking about questions seeking ...
nhgrif's user avatar
  • 25.2k
14 votes
3 answers
221 views

Which licenses are compatible with Code Review?

It is should be well known that code posted to Code Review are licensed under CC-BY-SA. I am wondering: Are there any licenses that are compatible with this licensing? Is it possible to use one ...
Simon Forsberg's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
502 views

Asking questions - including full code

In my first CR question, I was looking for feedback about my implementation of a graph data structure and an algorithm for depth first traversal, as I am studying these at the moment. Although I ...
randomusername's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
125 views

Can I ask the same question with a different language?

I am wondering if it would be bad to ask for the same code review, just under a different language. For example: Hypothetically I post a question asking for a code review of my Ruby "Hello World" ...
an earwig's user avatar
  • 445
11 votes
1 answer
169 views

Posting the same program in three different languages in three different sections [duplicate]

If I made three programs in three different languages, that do the same thing, could I post all three of them and have them connect to one another in order for the review to be successful? Let's say ...
13aal's user avatar
  • 822
10 votes
1 answer
242 views

Are you allowed to post incomplete programs that you still want reviewed?

Are you allowed to post incomplete programs that you still want reviewed? I made the start of a battleship game, but I want people's opinion before I finish it.
lol's user avatar
  • 243
10 votes
1 answer
139 views

Questions that ask for you to e-mail them to get the code

What is the appropriate way to handle a question that doesn't post the code to review, but posts an e-mail address that you can I assume e-mail and get the code? A (now-deleted) example is: ...
Ryan Gates's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
149 views

Should I ask a separate question?

This examples applies for web mainly, but could apply for other stuff also. Let's say I develop a web plugin that has both JavaScript code and CSS. Should I post one question to review the ...
Hugo Dozois's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
94 views

How should I ask this big question?

I am currently working on one of my first projects with Python and my first project with PyQT. I would like to post this as a question, to see if there are any improvements I can make. The project is ...
JAD's user avatar
  • 2,909
3 votes
1 answer
127 views

Text minimum in questions

On all Stack Exchange sites, you can't post answers or questions that are mostly code. You always have to include some text minimum, otherwise you can't post the question. I do understand why this is ...
Erich's user avatar
  • 454
3 votes
0 answers
62 views

My code with a small set of classes may be too much [duplicate]

I have a small set of classes that form an events system that I would very much like opinions on, but they're made up of a few classes that together amount to around 1kloc. I'm a little worried that ...
Hanii Puppy's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
68 views

Are implemented API reviews without code on-topic?

I've been reading through the various questions asking whether or not API reviews are on topic, but they've left me a bit confused. In particular "Are questions about public interface (API) on topic?"...
Sam Whited's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
86 views

Posting a whole project, ready for public review [duplicate]

Say I have an open source project hosted on GitHub or wherever, currently in the public review, testing, and bug reporting phase. The Asking page says: ...feedback on a specific working piece of ...
Oliver Yasuna's user avatar
26 votes
3 answers
260 views

Is asking for a review of boiler plate for a minimal repro okay?

For asking and answering questions on Stack Overflow with certain frameworks and libraries I have boilerplate lying around for a minimal repro. I would be interested in getting feedback on my WCF ...
Jeroen's user avatar
  • 1,441
21 votes
3 answers
317 views

Found a serious bug in my question after posting it

What is the correct way to go after I found a bug in a question that I posted? Shall I delete the question, vote to close it or flag it as off-topic?
Richard Neumann's user avatar
20 votes
3 answers
370 views

Should we censor rude language in comments/strings of posted code?

What I’m referring to mostly started with this edit where strong language that possibly originated as a joke from the OP was flagged as rude and removed from the question entirely. The code in the ...
301_Moved_Permanently's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
735 views

Let's update the modal for new askers

The Issue There are many posts on CR that are off-topic for various reasons... Sometimes 10-20 per day! Apparently many users don't read/heed the text on the right side (i.e. "Your question must ...
Sᴀᴍ Onᴇᴌᴀ's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
156 views

Posting a multi-language project

I have a small project for which I would like to ask for a code review soon. However, it integrates multiple languages (specifically, Python + jQuery and the rest of the browser stack). Can such a ...
otus's user avatar
  • 878
16 votes
3 answers
177 views

Will a question be downvoted for poor code?

I am kind of new to Code Review SE (I only have two questions), and am trying to understand the site. I recently came across this question with three downvotes. For the most part, It seems that it is ...
an earwig's user avatar
  • 445
14 votes
2 answers
122 views

Insufficient "How to ask"

As a newbie coming to CR and asking the very first question you can see There's nothing about broken code there and many new questions seem to get closed quickly because of it. Moreover, it names no ...
maaartinus's user avatar
  • 13.5k
13 votes
2 answers
148 views

Is it valid to reask (many) question on same script?

I have asked a question about a Python script a few months ago. Now I have developed that script furthermore fixing the issues described in the answer of that question. Now I have another questions ...
Santosh Kumar's user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
149 views

Is asking for review of 3rd party code ok?

Most code people are posting here seems to be code they have written themselves. In this question the OP asked basically for a review of three 3rd party scripts. I'm not sure that this question is a ...
ChrisWue's user avatar
  • 20.1k