How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

**Mathew Joy** · February 9th, 2004, 11:11 PM

Originally posted by SolarFlare
Gasp! Xe*n???

Me

Xeon

You must be kidding

We both have almost exact nature (atleast in public)

. BTW he is not banned, is he? Might be warned!!!

**Sam Hobbs** · February 10th, 2004, 12:19 AM

I sure did not understand SolarFlare's comment because I sure know that you are not Xeon.

**SolarFlare** · February 10th, 2004, 10:17 AM

It was just a joke... last we know, Xeon is afc in the army.

**Yves M** · February 10th, 2004, 03:04 PM

Well, my thought...

If people did their own research before posting and we only got intelligent and hard questions, then, well, then practically nobody could answer any of them

This is to say that I don't really mind if people post questions that can be found by looking through MSDN. When you begin programming, the MSDN docs are daunting and you'll spend two days trying to find what you need. I may be exagerating a bit, but this was the case when I started off. However, of course, the ultimate goal for *that poster* is that he learns to search MSDN himself.

On the other hand, the "precise question" thing is definitely important on CG. There are quite a few posts every day where somebody replies : "you are doing something wrong, show your source code".

And well, the matters of common curtousy... I *hate* people who put in their post "Send any replies to [email protected]".

For the practical side of things, it may be a good article to link to. There are always people who don't take notice of things like these, but there sure are people who have good faith and don't knowingly want to do stuff wrong.

**Sam Hobbs** · February 10th, 2004, 04:00 PM

It would be interesting to define what are good questions. It is more difficult to do that than to define bad questions.

I often want to know where to look for an answer. For example I asked how to get the destination address of a UDP packet. The answer I got was the raw sockets function to use for that. I don't need sample code but it sure helps to know that the function will do what I asked about. For some reason I could not understand how I could use raw sockets with CAsyncSocket but now I probably know how to do many things now that I know I can use raw sockets. I think a question is good when a beginner can make a big leap such as that.

So in other words, when someone is not sure where to even look for answers and someone else can answer immediately or nearly immediately where to look, then that is where a forum such as this can be especially effective.

**Mathew Joy** · February 17th, 2004, 04:47 AM

Originally posted by Yves M
And well, the matters of common curtousy... I *hate* people who put in their post "Send any replies to [email protected]".

I agree with Yves here. And I think there should be a new guideline not to post anything like that. This defeats the whole purpose of the existance of CG. When the discussion and the solution is posted in public forums it benefits all who view them, not just the one who is having the problem.

**Mathew Joy** · February 17th, 2004, 05:14 AM

Originally posted by Sam Hobbs
For some reason I could not understand how I could use raw sockets with CAsyncSocket but now I probably know how to do many things now that I know I can use raw sockets.

I know that you can't mix raw sockets with TCP. If you are talking about SOCK_DGRAM (UDP) of CAsyncSocket,...well not much idea. You can post your qn. Those who know may answer and those who don't know may learn

**Sam Hobbs** · February 17th, 2004, 04:37 PM

I posted a question in the Microsoft Networks programmer newsgroup and a Microsoft person suggested using WSARecvMsg with my CAsyncSocket UDP listener program. That function is not easy to figure out; that is, filling in the WSAMSG structure. I have not spent as much time as I should to try to figure it out so I am not asking for help with it now. If you can help, then we should do it in another thread or offline from these forums. However I will spend some more time working on a solution before I ask for help.

I assume you are the same Mathew Joy I see in the Microsoft Networks programmer newsgroup, so I know you know a lot more about that stuff than I do.

**Mathew Joy** · February 18th, 2004, 12:41 AM

Since I know that the discussion is deviating away from the topic, I'll leave with an advice, you'll never regret following. One of the reasons you didn't get the reply is, you are using winsock at the high level (MFC) and having problem with the low level (raw). People there may not be well aware of how MFC is handling the calls, simply because it is not worth figuring it out. If you want to have good knowledge of the working of winsock and its underlying principles, you simply cannot use general wrapper classes. MFC may have wrapped many apis well, but when it comes to winsock it is no where near the mark. So your option is either use MFC for simple communications or use apis to have control and use it efficiently. Since you are more into the technical side (as I see) pick MFC by the collar and throw it out of your backdoor and I'm sure it'll relieve you from unnecessary backstrain.

When it comes to winsock, (apis ofcourse) always ready to help and learn

**Sam Hobbs** · February 18th, 2004, 01:02 AM

Yes I realize that about use of MFC and such. Also, I did get an answer to my question, as I indicated here previously. I was able to use raw sockets with MFC. I realize there is a limit to how much I can do by mixing MFC and raw sockets.

I assume the reasons I did not get responses to my follow-up questions is that I made a mistake, I have not researched the matter enough myself and I asked the question poorly.

**Mick** · February 18th, 2004, 01:04 AM

Originally posted by Sam Hobbs
I assume the reasons I did not get responses to my follow-up questions is that I made a mistake, I have not researched the matter enough myself and I asked the question poorly.

You mean you "didn't ask the question The Smart Way?"

/Couldn't resist

**souldog** · February 18th, 2004, 03:52 AM

Originally posted by Mathew Joy
Since I know that the discussion is deviating away from the topic, I'll leave with an advice, you'll never regret following. One of the reasons you didn't get the reply is, you are using winsock at the high level (MFC) and having problem with the low level (raw). People there may not be well aware of how MFC is handling the calls, simply because it is not worth figuring it out. If you want to have good knowledge of the working of winsock and its underlying principles, you simply cannot use general wrapper classes. MFC may have wrapped many apis well, but when it comes to winsock it is no where near the mark. So your option is either use MFC for simple communications or use apis to have control and use it efficiently. Since you are more into the technical side (as I see) pick MFC by the collar and throw it out of your backdoor and I'm sure it'll relieve you from unnecessary backstrain.

When it comes to winsock, (apis ofcourse) always ready to help and learn

Well I don't much care about asking questions the smart way. If
I can't figure out what is being asked then I don't answer.
(OK sometimes I answer anyway

)

But I sure like to read thinhgs like what Matthew Joy posted above. ahh... the CSocket nightmare. How much time has been
wasted by those stinking classes? Just can't get enough of
MFC bashing.

**Charleston** · February 18th, 2004, 04:22 AM

You know, my friend once asked me if I could prove 1+1=n [n=integer]
Does it sound crazy ? I did think it was just a silly question, absolutely not mathematical at all, but he is fun and I laughed so much when I understood why 1+1=n, I wont tell you, and please dont ask because now it is so trivial for me and for you still sounds so strange. Dont worry, we are human, and we have our own curiousity about many things, do you have such a feeling?
True, I think it is so trivial, so common, and if you ask me why, I would say you didnt make a smart question, because that is what I personally think about what is mine-here it is my problem (1+1=n). I now know its solution, but you dont. But my friends know much more...
So what is a smart question to me ?
If a lot of people say it is a good question, so, we admit it s a good question, Newb's questions are hard to be said smart by gurus right ?
I think it is just like rumors, for example, rumor1+rumor2+rumor3+rumor4+.....rumorn=Defame
I really like to see difererent pieces of information from diferernt sources to improving things, making them much better, my eyes really get itchy when so much information comes from different pointers which are sharing the same address. True

**Mathew Joy** · February 18th, 2004, 04:32 AM

Originally posted by Mathew Joy
One of the reasons you didn't get the reply is...

To make things more clear, when I said reply, I meant reply for the follow-up questions (I checked your question before posting)

**Sam Hobbs** · February 18th, 2004, 01:49 PM

Originally posted by Mathew Joy
(I checked your question before posting)

I assumed you did.

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