The Ubiquitous Newbie Tips

[PhHein]

The Ubiquitous Newbie Tips
Originally posted by corlettk

* DON'T SHOUT!!!

* Homework dumps will be flamed mercilessly.

* Have a quick scan through the Forum FAQ.


Ask a good question

* Don't forget to actually ask a question. No, The subject line doesn't count.

* Ask once
- Don't crosspost!
- Two people answering one question independantly is a waste of their time.

* Don't even talk to me until you've:
(a) googled it and
(b) looked it up in Oracle's Java Tutorials and
(c) read the relevant section of the API Docs and maybe even
(d) referred to the JLS (for "advanced" questions).

* Good questions get better Answers. It's a fact.
- Many of the regular forumites don't bother to read badly written questions.
- FFS spare us the SMS and L33t speak! Pull your pants up! and Get a hair cut!
- Often you discover your own mistake whilst formulating a "Good question".
- Many forumites will bend over backwards to help with a "Good question",
especially to a nuggetty problem, because they're interested in the answer.

* Improve your chances of getting laid tonight by writing an SSCCE
- For you normal people, That's a: Short Self-Contained Compilable Example.
- Short is sweet: No-one wants to wade through 5000 lines to find your syntax errors!
- Often you discover your own mistake whilst writing an SSCCE.
- Solving your own problem yields a sense of accomplishment ;-)


Formatting Matters

* Post your code between a pair of [highlight=Java] tags code here
- That is: [highlight=Java]... your code goes here ... [/highlight]
- this makes code easier to read by preserving whitespace and syntax highlighting.
- Copy&paste your source code directly from your editor.
- The forums tabwidth is 8 (as per the convention).
- Indentation will go wacky if you've mixed tabs and spaces.
- Proper indentation illustrates program logic.
- Lines longer than 80 (or so) characters should be wrapped.

* Post your error messages between a pair of [highlight=Java] tags:
- That is: [highlight=Java] ... errors here ... [/highlight]
- Please mark the erroneous line(s) in your source-code. For example:
System.out.println("Your momma!); // <<<< ERROR 1
- Error messages may be rendered useless if the code has been
modified since the error message was produced.
- Here's How to read a stacktrace.

* The forum editor has a "Preview" pane. Use it.

If you (the noob) have covered these bases you deserve, and can therefore expect, GOOD answers!


The pledge!

We the New To Java regulars do hereby pledge to refrain from flaming anybody, no matter how gumbyish the question, if the OP has demonstrably tried to cover these bases.
The rest are fair game.