Are code troubleshooting questions really what we want to encourage? [closed]

Are code troubleshooting questions really what we want to encourage?

Yes, that's a pretty big part of Stack Overflow. We should keep answering those questions.

But the question you link to as example is completely off the grid. It is neither a troubleshooting question nor is it about code nor is it about an actual problem. The OP is asking on how to achieve something he should do on his own, or pay a programmer to do it for him. He's outlining behavior and now wants us to tell him how to do it. These questions have always been downvoted and closed. I fail to see the difference between that question and give me the codez.

As to your comment, if I remember right linking against search machines was discouraged for a good reason. While I understand your motivation, I think we should stick to that rule. We should not encourage such behavior by even throwing the smallest breadcrumbs at the people. Additionally, we can't draw the line between Google-Questions and and those who are not deserving such a smelly answer.

Edit: To explain this 'hostile' approach, I'd like to quote two things:

The Downvote-Tooltip:

This question does not show any research effort; it is unclear or not useful.

The Not-a-real-question close reason description:

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form.

Both fit on this question:

• It lacks any research
• It lacks crucial details (what is invalid text? What method is used to identify invalid text?)
• It is most likely open ended, with additional trouble shooting and extending of the given example ("Can you please make the box move more to the right?")

In this case, I don't think that code would improve the question.

Code is useful for "I am having this specific error in a specific portion of my code". It's not useful for "I have no idea what I'm doing."

In general, the solution to "I don't know how to program" or "I don't know the basics of web development like field validation" is to go experiment and read tutorials and whatever else. Telling someone to go somewhere else and learn isn't a good answer, and if it's the only possible answer then that makes it a bad question. SO isn't built to host tutorials.

I don't think catering to questions this basic makes for a website that experts want to participate in. I might close as Not A Real Question but at minimum the downvote tooltip says "This question does not show any research effort; it is unclear or not useful", and it's only not unclear.

Oh, and I don't think the other commenter was looking to troubleshoot. It seems clear to me that he is looking for context in order to provide better guidance tailored to how the OP was creating his web form.

Complete text of question.

Title: i want a dialog box in case of error

I am developing an application for iphone/android and i am using webapp-net. I have some fields in my application, what I want to have is this: when input is entered and its incorrect(so the app will realizes that its not a correct input immediately) I want a popup window to show up with a message that indicates the input needs to be changed. I dont want a new window or anything like, a simple dialog box with an error message will do the job. and when the user touches the textfield area to make a new input I want that dialog box to be gone. So far I couldnt find a good example to do this. If you need any more information i would gladly give it to you.

I don't think this is a good question and I don't think it belongs here. Even with edits -- which are a waste in this case.

Primarily, it fails the what have you tried to make this work? test. Forget showing code, how about showing us some effort! Like it says in the sidebar of the /ask page:

Provide details. Share your research.

I do not accept questions that are brief meta-descriptions of what the author wants to accomplish without demonstrating any actual attempt to solve their own problem or sharing the research they did on the topic. These are just "gimme teh codez" in a different colored wrapper.

Code troubleshooting questions are a good fit for Stack Overflow, within reason. “Within reason” means that:

• The code must not be too long. There's a post length limit, but if you come anywhere close to it, your question has far too much code. You (the asker) must make the effort of shrinking your code to a small example that exhibits the problem. This effort will make you understand the problem better (and sometimes will even let you solve it by yourself), and it is necessary if you expect people to answer.
• The posted code must be complete. You'll get far better answers if people can try the code on their own machine and look at their compiler's warning messages or spend a couple of minutes with a debugger (but don't expect that they'll always do that!). Try to minimize dependencies (e.g. don't include libraries that aren't relevant to the problem).
• You must post an explanation of the desired behavior of the program, and the behavior you observe, and it must be clear how the behaviors differ. Posting the code with no explanation may get your question automatically rejected, and even if you pass through the filter, a question that does not have a clear explanation of both the desired behavior and the problematic actual behavior is likely to be closed as “not a real question”.

In moderate quantities, “why doesn't this code work” can be a fun puzzle. In large quantities, “why doesn't this code work” is debugging hell.

But not all questions are about code troubleshooting. At the other end of the spectrum, there are times where you don't even know where to start. You have a high-level description of your data, now you're looking for a suitable data structure. You know what you want to do with your data, now you need an algorithm. You're entering a new subfield of programming and you need to learn the techniques that are specific to this subfield. You're confronted with a new, complex piece of hardware or software and you're looking for a good way to become familiar with it. All these questions are about programming, and (provided they meet the general Stack Exchange guidelines, such as asking “practical, answerable questions”, avoiding extended discussion and so on) they are perfectly suitable for Stack Overflow.

The question that sparked this is clearly a beginner's question. This doesn't make it any less legitimate. Stack Overflow isn't only for those programmers who've already seen it all and done it all; the Stack Overflow FAQ has nothing to say about the level of expertise required to participate on the site (unlike some other Stack Exchange site, which are not the topic at hand here).

Just because a question is basic doesn't mean it's simple. There have been two main benchmarks proposed to define questions that are too simple: questions whose answer is easily found by a web search (Google questions), or questions whose answer is easily found in a common reference (Wikipedia questions). (See the discussions regarding a general reference close reason.) This question is not too simple by either definition. It's about input validation — but the asker didn't know the word, which made it difficult to search for good references. Even with the word, the now obvious Wikipedia article is not much help: it's very abstract, there's nothing in here that helps you validate form data in Javascript.

Sure, if you're a seasoned web programmer, this is elementary to you. Well, it's not elementary to everyone. Imagine you've just hired a junior developer, or perhaps an intern. You will have to guide him through many things that seem easy to you. This question is one of those things. And it's not so easy to write a good answer, is it? Not everyone is a good teacher. Yet teaching programming is part of the job of a programmer, and very much has its place on a questions and answers site about programming.

TL,DR:

1. This question is perfectly on-topic.
2. This kind of beginner questions is welcome here. There is no justification to close them. And I should add: comments to the contrary tend to come out as rude or non-constructive. Flag away (or in your case, Robert, delete away).
3. This question is not “very low quality”. The English was sub-par but comprehensible; that's a reason to edit, not to delete (which is what “very low quality” is supposed to entail).
4. Compelling people to show code doesn't strictly restrict the site to a “coding support site”, but it would be an arbitrary, harmful restriction on a site about programming. (If you want every question to have code, try Code Review.)