Personally, I figured out a long while back that if I can't summarize the problem in one or (at most) two sentences, I probably don't really understand it.

I often ask people asking for help in EFnet's #perlhelp to describe the problem in 12 words. This makes answering questions much easier, if only because when shortening their question they often realise they already know the answer :)

12 words is a rather small limit, but this is necessary to force them to abstract it and leave all external factors that have nothing to do with the problem out. It also helps people learn jargon.

So far, most questions that couldn't be summarized in 12 words or less turned out to be composed of multiple related questions or to be about some very awkward program design.

Yes, I do think even questions should be refactored when possible.

(And it can of course be 13, 14, 15 words. But if you say 15, you get 20, and that is too many.)

Juerd # { site => 'juerd.nl', plp_site => 'plp.juerd.nl', do_not_use => 'spamtrap' }

In reply to Re^2: How do YOU find the answer to your question? by Juerd
in thread How do YOU find the answer to your question? by Velaki

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