Micro-post today:
I'm an active member of a couple of places where people post questions and (hopefully) get answers to them. Time and time again I see questions like "I'm doing X, but it isn't working. Why not?" followed by 35-200 lines of code, of which the eponymous "X" is 5-10 lines of code.
People. Seriously. It's like you've never heard the maxim of the Old French Republic: divide et impera (in English, loosely: divide and conquer). Or to put it in even geekier terms: Create a minimum failing test case. There are two very good reasons for doing this:
- I give it 90% or better odds that if you build a minimum failing test case, you'll figure out why "X" isn't working.
- If (1) above doesn't work out for you, well, then you have this lovely minimum failing test case you can post so people can help you out.
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