Generating minimal working examples
The most effective way to seek help from anyone is to post the problem in a readily understandable manner, sparing readers from the need to ask for additional details. That’s like serving the problem on a silver platter with a complete, illustrative, and minimal code example that can be easily compiled, making the resolution process straightforward. This approach is perfect in a forum, allowing readers to test and address the issue promptly. In other words:
- Post the complete code so readers can try to compile it
- The code should show the problem
- Remove non-relevant stuff so it’s as small as possible
Then, it’s usually easy to solve it. It’s handy enough to post in a forum, and the readers can quickly try it out.
How to do it...
A good strategy is the “divide and conquer” method—resolving a problem by breaking it into smaller parts until only simple issues remain. To isolate...
