I'm the author of the only answer to the question that started this topic. Here are my thoughts:

1. Under normal circumstances, a good answer should directly address the given question. However, that question had several reasons to not directly answer the question.

2. There definitely are students who ask homework questions on SE sites. I respect the belief that many users felt that this was a homework question, and that nothing will be learned by simply giving them an answer. Personally, I am willing to take the asker's word that it wasn't a homework question; but even then, it's the type of question that could be used in the future as such. Therefore, I was careful not to simply give away the answer.

3. Computing history seems like a wierd topic for a homework assignment. It would seem to me that "how could this be used" has more educational value than "how was this used". I'm not saying such homework questions are impossible, just unusual.

4. My biggest concern about that question was that it was off-topic. It referred to electrical aspects, instead of historical aspects.

5. Despite that, I would expect someone in the future would search for information about the historical aspects. (SE sites often show up high on search engine results.) To help someone looking for the historical aspects, I provided a narrow, retrocomputing-related answer, and then referred the asker to a more appropriate forum.

   I'll keep this answer relevant to retrocomputing. The remaining aspects of your question belong in Electronics.SE.

   My answer got some upvotes, so it appears that some users approved of my approach.

6. I have an answer already written in case it is posted to Electronics.SE:

   I'm going to list differences between the chips, but leave it up to you to research which chip is which. Even if it's not a homework question for you, it could be for someone else.

• One is a microcontroller, meaning it includes ROM, RAM, and peripherals on the chip; you can create a working system with a few passive components, without a need for other ICs. The other is a microprocessor, meaning you have to add ROM, RAM, peripherals, and address decoding with external chips in order to create a working system.
• One can be powered by a single +5V supply. The other also needs -5V and +12V.

...and so on. You can see that someone would need to do some research to get an acceptable homework answer. So far, the question has *not* appeared on Electronics.SE. 

Does this seem like a reasonable approach to answering possible homework questions? How could I have done better?

I'm the author of the only answer to the question that started this topic. Here are my thoughts:

1. Under normal circumstances, a good answer should directly address the given question. However, that question had several reasons to not directly answer the question.

2. There definitely are students who ask homework questions on SE sites. I respect the belief that many users felt that this was a homework question, and that nothing will be learned by simply giving them an answer. Personally, I am willing to take the asker's word that it wasn't a homework question; but even then, it's the type of question that could be used in the future as such. Therefore, I was careful not to simply give away the answer.

3. Computing history seems like a wierd topic for a homework assignment. It would seem to me that "how could this be used" has more educational value than "how was this used". I'm not saying such homework questions are impossible, just unusual.

4. My biggest concern about that question was that it was off-topic. It referred to electrical aspects, instead of historical aspects.

5. Despite that, I would expect someone in the future would search for information about the historical aspects. (SE sites often show up high on search engine results.) To help someone looking for the historical aspects, I provided a narrow, retrocomputing-related answer, and then referred the asker to a more appropriate forum.

   I'll keep this answer relevant to retrocomputing. The remaining aspects of your question belong in Electronics.SE.

   My answer got some upvotes, so it appears that some users approved of my approach.

6. I have an answer already written in case it is posted to Electronics.SE:

   I'm going to list differences between the chips, but leave it up to you to research which chip is which. Even if it's not a homework question for you, it could be for someone else.

• One is a microcontroller, meaning it includes ROM, RAM, and peripherals on the chip; you can create a working system with a few passive components, without a need for other ICs. The other is a microprocessor, meaning you have to add ROM, RAM, peripherals, and address decoding with external chips in order to create a working system.
• One can be powered by a single +5V supply. The other also needs -5V and +12V.

...and so on. (The actual answer has 15 entries, and I planned to make it a community wiki.) You can see that someone would need to do some research to get an acceptable homework answer. So far, the question has *not* appeared on Electronics.SE. 

Does this seem like a reasonable approach to answering possible homework questions? How could I have done better?