Timeline for Making "best practices" questions more palatable: how to ask a "best practice" question that is acceptable to the community?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
41 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 22, 2020 at 12:22 | history | edited | Doc Brown | CC BY-SA 4.0 | New site name introduced |
| Mar 20, 2017 at 10:29 | history | edited | CommunityBot | replaced http://meta.stackexchange.com/ with https://meta.stackexchange.com/ | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 17:21 | history | edited | CommunityBot | replaced http://meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/ with https://softwareengineering.meta.stackexchange.com/ | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 17:21 | history | edited | CommunityBot | replaced http://meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/ with https://softwareengineering.meta.stackexchange.com/ | |
| Jan 19, 2015 at 17:32 | comment | added | Cody Piersall | So this is a question asking for best practices when asking a question about best practices? | |
| Jan 13, 2015 at 16:30 | answer | added | Doc Brown | timeline score: 4 | |
| Jan 13, 2015 at 15:02 | comment | added | gnat | @DocBrown not quite, see How to Answer. :) It lacks an explanation why and how that works. FWIW I tried to make it into a full blown answer but it turned out rather difficult | |
| Jan 13, 2015 at 14:48 | comment | added | Doc Brown | @gnat: your comment sounds like a good answer. | |
| Jan 9, 2015 at 16:51 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackProgrammer/status/553594950404034561 | ||
| Jan 7, 2015 at 22:59 | comment | added | gnat | I can't speak for community, but my personal criteria to evaluate such questions is rather simple. I try to imagine how it would look like with "best practice" words removed. If question keeps making sense, it's okay. | |
| Jan 7, 2015 at 0:26 | comment | added | Johan | Best Practice is to not use the word "Best practice" on programmers.stackexchange. | |
| Jan 6, 2015 at 3:52 | answer | added | user40980 | timeline score: 3 | |
| Jan 6, 2015 at 1:20 | answer | added | Telastyn | timeline score: 9 | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 21:41 | answer | added | Tom Au | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 20:31 | history | edited | user40980 | Create tag for commonly discussed issue. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 19:01 | comment | added | Dan Nissenbaum | Robert - Regarding MUI re. Windows/POSIX - you're correct. MUI is Windows-only. That's one of the (many) reasons that I'm (probably) not going to use it. (In my case, it's an MFC application, so the application is heavily tied to Windows in any case.) | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:59 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | Worth noting: if this is a cross-platform application, MUI is probably out the window anyway. It's likely that it's not used at all on Posix, for what should be obvious reasons. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:58 | comment | added | Dan Nissenbaum | I think you'd be making a mistake not to give any additional consideration if you found that you were the first person to ever use a technology in a particular use-case (while thousands used a different technology). It would be in the same spirit of rigor with which I engaged in my initial research, that I would also engage in the due diligence of revisiting my conclusion carefully if I learned that I was going strongly against standard practice. But, like you, I might still do it! I'd be very open to it. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:56 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | Indeed. Now you know how important I think those numbers are, especially given the apparent rigor you've applied to your suitability research. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:56 | comment | added | Dan Nissenbaum | If you only gave two minute's worth of additional consideration, I would not trust any conclusion you would come to. That's not serious consideration. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:54 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | For about two minutes, maybe. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:54 | comment | added | Dan Nissenbaum | Robert - I have already considered all of those issues in great detail. I ask again: after considering all such relevant issues (as a higher priority), would you then not reconsider even after coming to your decision if you found out that the 100,000-to-0 ratio holds? Would this fact be irrelevant? | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:52 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | I would consider more salient factors like "is this understandable by my fellow programmers, relatively straightforward to use? Does it scale? Does it meet my software's functional and non-functional requirements?" A better question than statistics would be "does it fit into some grand master plan?" It might not. I still think that numbers could mean everyone's trotting after a herd; I've seen it many times before. I've also seen those same numbers dwindle six months later. In short, those numbers are about as useful as the SLOC metric. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:50 | comment | added | Dan Nissenbaum | Robert - I think I already know why, but if I found out the numbers were that extreme, it would cause me to reconsider and perhaps spend another day or two researching - placing a higher weight on the possibility that my initial 2 days of research were insufficient. Would you also possibly reconsider, or devote more time to an already-lengthy investigation (rather than finalizing your decision), if you were to learn that the 100,000-to-0 ratio was in fact the case? | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:48 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | I would want to know why. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:48 | comment | added | Dan Nissenbaum | Robert - I note that you did not answer my question. In my example, would it cause you to reconsider if you discovered that 100,000 people used Technology A, and 0 people used Technology B, in your particular use-case, after you had decided upon Technology B after careful research, but had no experience with either? I'd like to know your thoughts. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:46 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | You can spin it any way you like, but ultimately your question amounts to "I've made my decision, unless x number of people use this over that." The reason why is still the compelling factor, not the numbers. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:45 | comment | added | Dan Nissenbaum | Robert - if you think that is a straw man, than what do you think my question on Programmers is? It is exactly that straw man! That's what I actually want to know. Or do you think my question is hypothetical, or that the answer is obvious in the case I'm asking about? I have an actual question I'd like answered! I have absolutely no clue what the standard practice is via MUI vs. GetText. I've made up my mind already, but I want to know if I'd be one of the first ones to do so. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:43 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | An interesting, but ultimately irrelevant straw man, and a hypothetical one at that. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:42 | comment | added | Dan Nissenbaum | Robert - I didn't ask about "market share", and it's also not particularly related to "best practices", in my opinion. Here's a question, which in my opinion gets to the heart of whether the question I asked belongs on this site: Suppose you had a challenging task and spent days researching two technologies in detail, finally coming to a carefully considered conclusion, but aware that you had no hands-on experience implementing either approach. Suppose you then learned that 100,000 people used one approach, and 0 people used the other, in your use-case. Would that cause you to reconsider? | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:35 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | I would consider any question about market share categorically off-topic here. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:32 | comment | added | Dan Nissenbaum | Robert - If you look at the title of my post, and read my question, you will see what I am asking. I have no idea, on Windows, whether GetText is commonly used. I'd like to know. In my case, I stress that I am not basing my decision on this, and in particular in my case, I am not asking about best practices (even though it might appear so on cursory reading.) | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:31 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | Then what are you asking? Clearly, you don't need the research, since you've already done that. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:30 | comment | added | Dan Nissenbaum | Robert - In regards to the 90% point that you raised - I agree. In fact, as I stated in my post, if 90% of people used MUI, I still wouldn't use it. As I stated, I am not basing my choice on the statistics. You are trying to herd me into a hole in which I, and my question, don't fit. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:29 | comment | added | Dan Nissenbaum | FYI, here is a link to the post noted in the question (I wrote it): programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/268090/… | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:27 | history | edited | Robert Harvey | CC BY-SA 3.0 | added 1 character in body |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:24 | comment | added | Robert Harvey | @DanNissenbaum: Perhaps the 90% of the people who use Microsoft MUI did so because they were trotting after the herd. Doesn't necessarily make the technique a good one, just one that is used because that's what everyone else uses. Or, maybe it was the first technique that was available. The why is still more compelling than the usage numbers. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:24 | comment | added | Dan Nissenbaum | I am the programmer who posted the question noted here. In my opinion, this is a mischaracterization of my question. I don't care about best practices. In fact, I spent days investigating the issues and coming to my own conclusion before asking my statistical question. Even if the statistics were opposite my conclusion, I would not consider the commonly-used approach to be a good practice. (For the record, Microsoft MUI stinks.) Nonetheless, after my days of effort, I have no idea what is standard practice. This is a very different question from my wishing to know best practice. | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:22 | answer | added | Thomas OwensMod | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:21 | history | edited | Robert Harvey | CC BY-SA 3.0 | added 1 character in body |
| Jan 5, 2015 at 18:16 | history | asked | Robert Harvey | CC BY-SA 3.0 |