Questions tagged [discussion]
The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.
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My question was closed as being off-topic. What are my options?
I can understand that sometimes questions are closed as being too opinionated, too broad, or unclear, but my question was closed as being off-topic. I have read the On-Topic Help Center page for Code ...
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For an iterative review, is it okay to edit my own question to include revised code?
Is it okay to edit the question to include the improved code?
I would like to do so for the following reasons:
To share the improved code with others
To show the answering persons that I take their ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Can I put my code on a third party site and link to the site in my question?
Is it OK if I write a question and include a link to GitHub/Pastebin/other similar site instead of putting the code here on Code Review?
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What's a Zombie? And what are the many other memes of Code Review?
What is a Zombie? Why are Code Reviewers so violent and talking about killing Zombies all the time? And what ammo are they talking about? What is a TS? What does RSA mean?
And what other Code Review-...
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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 - ...
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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 ...
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Short answers and code-only answers
What should we do with:
Short answers (for example, "I suggest you use [hyperlink to this standard API] instead.")
Code-only answers (for example, an improved version of the code in the OP)
Such ...
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Reviewing "design"
It has been said in various comments that on Code Review we review code and not design.
I find this statement not very clear though. Obviously, if someone has an UML and not any written code, that's ...
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Call of Duty - We're on a mission
This is a direct reply to Grace Note's recent CR review, more precisely the following part:
(emphasis mine)
Unanswered
Tying in to all of the above is one of the most pressing concerns about ...
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Frequently Posted Comments
On Code Review we often encounter questions with the same kind of problem over and over again.
Some of us are using the auto comments script which allows you to maintain a list of comments to post.
...
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A guide to Code Review for Stack Overflow users
You're on Stack Overflow and you've found a question that seems to be about improving code. You are trying to be helpful, and you put a comment in the question:
You should try asking on CodeReview....
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How is Code Review doing right now?
I’m Grace Note, a Community Manager at Stack Exchange. Normally for most sites we run a community site evaluation, as explained in this Meta Stack Overflow post under Public Beta sites. However, these ...
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Why is only my own written code on-topic?
I tend to disagree with point #2 on the Help Center:
Did I write that code?
I believe any code, written by one self or anyone else should be eligible for code review. Many a times, you're ...
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How is this site different from Stack Overflow? [duplicate]
I've decided to check this site out since it was tweeted by the great Jeff Atwood himself. The first question I saw was "Advice on making ruby code more ruby-like", which is the kind of question I see ...
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Should you edit someone else's code in a question?
I have seen several (suggested) reviews lately, where someone edits the code in the original poster's question. Should such edits be allowed?
The edits in question are mostly minor. Some add spaces ...
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Should we do something about our meta tags?
We have a decent selection of language and technology tags, but we also have many meta tags, such as refactoring. A meta tag, at least on here, specifies the OP's request(s) in a review, and not much ...
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How should we revisit our standard close reasons?
We have some history, shown below, with our close reasons, there are some problems we have with them. And there has been a consensus to rework them for a while now.
The latest I heard about this was ...
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answers
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Which answer to accept?
I can imagine this situation coming up frequently on this site. What should we do when there are multiple helpful valid answers?
Accept the one we think is most helpful?
Accept the one that was ...
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answers
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What is the appropriate length of a Code Review question?
While Stack Overflow questions often contain segments of pseudocode or purposely abbreviated code in order to make the question more palatable to other readers, for something like a Code Review, the ...
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How should we deal with askers fixing off-topic questions when an answer has been posted?
I did a quick search to see if this has been asked, but it didn't seem to be. The intent behind this question is from how this question was handled, but is not limited to it.
The situation is an ...
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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 ...
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Questions should include a description of what the code does
Related:
What criteria do you use to upvote a question?
What makes a good question?
I feel that it is currently too easy to copy some code that you have written and put it up for review here on Code ...
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Code Review SE is graduating!
Many of you have already seen announcements both on main and on meta announcing this site's graduation. At the request of a few of you who were skeptical (or perhaps merely in shocked disbelief), I'm ...
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Jack of All Trades, Master of None - Let's work together to offer ultimately better content, faster
Nhgrif pointed out a great idea: Teamwork
"I think it's probably best if the question instead has several good
answers that each address a specific topic. The result will be that no
single ...
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Should you refrain from answering questions that are likely to get closed?
Sometimes a question may look highly suspicious that it might get closed,
very commonly:
looks broken
looks hypothetical
unclear what OP is asking
These suspicions aside, what if you have a genius ...
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CR Weekend Challenge
Those of you that weren't following what's going on in the chat room might have been taken by surprise by a recent avalanche of Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock posts.
This is how it started:
OK, ...
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Code Review vs. Help me solve my problem
A question that asks:
I don't know how to best solve problem X, can you suggest a way?
... is clearly off-topic on Code Review.
A question that asks:
I have solved problem X, and this is how I ...
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answer
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How can I make my question get more attention?
I have written a question that hasn't gotten an answer in several days, and there's not much activity on my question (votes, views, comments).
What can I do to draw more attention to my question?
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How do we define duplicate questions?
This QA site doesn't quite take the form that others do. Here, we have fairly specific questions. But I already see two Project Euler #1 questions that are similar. Are these duplicates?
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'Canonical' questions to help address common issues
Short Version
I believe it would be valuable to create a 'canonical' question/answer of sorts for each language, and I am hoping to get others' thoughts on this.
These questions and answers would ...
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Best of Code Review 2013
As this 3rd beta-year comes to an end, we would like to host an event: The Best of Code Review 2013. All Code Review users will be invited to nominate (link to) the best questions and answers from ...
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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?
...
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How should we revise the standard off-topic reasons, if we can have up to five?
Note: For chat-like discussions of this subject, let's use this Discuss Close Reasons chat room
Code Review currently has three standard off-topic reasons:
Questions containing broken code or asking ...
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Review for large chunks of code
I am migrating from small pieces of code to larger applications. All my code is public on github or simillar. As I am in the middle of this transition, I am not very intrested in reviewing chunks of ...
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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 ...
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Off-topic questions that are still reviewable
There are some questions that are technically off-topic but still feel that the code really needs our help.
For example: https://codereview.stackexchange.com/questions/49347/tic-tac-toe-artificial-...
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1000 days in beta: let's make CR t-shirts
As of 2013-09-05, Area 51 stats for CodeReview are as follows:
Days in beta: 960.
Questions per day: 19.4. Healthy at 15, need work at 5. Check.
Answered Questions: 89%. Healthy at 90%. So we're ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Are we allowed to ask questions about just regular expressions?
Are we allowed to ask questions just about regular expressions?
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Can we review spreadsheet formulas?
So, this question has been bothering me for a long time now. It is asking for a review of one line of "code" which is really a spreadsheet formula.
Actually, it's not even asking for a review in my ...
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Answering Guidelines (answer length)
From Grace Note's CR review (emphasis mine):
Time to Answer
Jon Ericson, another Community Manager, ran some numbers on the site and discovered that the average time it takes for a question to ...
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Is pseudo-code alright when asking about performance?
The FAQ states:
Is it actual code from a project rather then pseudo-code or example code?
But oftentimes pseudo-code is a lot more straight forward and easy to evaluate. It also applies to a ...
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What would you say is the biggest problem Code Review is facing as a site as of June 2015?
Hopefully, by raising concerns, we may generate some ideas for improving the site!
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Should "your code seems fine" answers be acceptable?
I want to ask your opinion on how we should handle submitted question with code that is "fine".
I assume that will be the case for very view of the submitted review requests since everyone likes and ...
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Stack Exchange Data Explorer is up. What now, Wonderland?
If you didn't know already, the Stack Exchange Data Explorer (SEDE) now includes Code Review and all public Stack Exchange beta sites.
Bookmark: http://data.stackexchange.com/codereview/queries
This ...
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Tools for format and error checking in your programming language
Lints and Hints: What tools are available for checking and correcting the conventions, style and common errors in my language (lint tools), and are there tools that can automatically fix them (hint ...
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The race has started. Are you running?
PCG.SE is going on a mission.
And so the race begins. For Code Review!! -- syb0rg 2 days ago
Let's see:
Programming Puzzles and Code Golf Voting & Activity
PCG.SE Voting and ...