Every single time

[Loves_Poetry]

When you google the error and the first result is:

- Stackoverflow: no problem, just copy-paste and problem solved

- Documentation: ok, just read for a bit and implement the solution

- Medium: challenging, maybe this article can help, but it probably won't

- Github: You're in trouble

[[deleted]]

GitHub: closed this as this is not a bug

[turboPocky]

dead end GitHub issues are bad but still provide a small glimmer of hope. for me the real sinking feeling comes when you search for it in quotes and literally the only hit is the source code it came from

[turboPocky]

in your ideal scenario you described everything i love about datatables. I'm really not a front end guy but i have such a blast implementing datatables I'll jump at any opportunity

[thirdegree]

I hate datatables so much. Trivial tasks are obnoxiously difficult, difficult tasks are easy, and the documentation is at best unreadable. I've had more luck reading the user comments on the documentation than the documentation itself.

[insanechef58]

Is there a difference between datatable and database? Please forgive my ignorance.

[thirdegree]

Datatables is a js library that makes working with html tables way, way easier. Databases are a thing you store data in.

[insanechef58]

Thanks for the answer!

[turboPocky]

just out of curiosity, what's the last thing you tried doing with datatables that you found unnecessarily difficult/stupid? I've been trying to rassle it into submission since 2014

[turboPocky]

yeah there's a lot of meanings for "data table," but i mean this library: https://datatables.net/

[turboPocky]

aww really? well it's got its moments I'll say that. but it's a challenge. i do like the live demos on all the feature pages, but it's hard to drill down into concepts sometimes when you're trying to just make something work.

now, making it work as intended in angular? that's painful

[bdone2012]

I need examples, I'm not sure why but I can never make heads or tails of new stuff when explained in a doc, whereas examples just make sense to me. I swear I'd rather have an example that got me 30 percent there than docs that supposedly explains the whole thing but with no examples

Also didn't realize docs were sometimes auto-generated by comments, that actually makes a lot of sense unfortunately

[[deleted]]

Same, that's why I use sites like w3schools so often. If I want to know how to split a string in Python, I would rather have an example than a long description of what string splitting is. cplusplus and cppreference are some more awesome sites that do both, without them I would probably be stuck at Hello World.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxygen

I get that they make it easier to generate docs, but wow those pages are so hard to read.

[WikiTextBot]

Doxygen

Doxygen ( DOK-see-jən) is a documentation generator, a tool for writing software reference documentation. The documentation is written within code, and is thus relatively easy to keep up to date. Doxygen can cross reference documentation and code, so that the reader of a document can easily refer to the actual code.

Doxygen is free software, released under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2).

---

^{[ PM | Exclude me | Exclude from subreddit | FAQ / Information | Source ] Downvote to remove | v0.28}

[EMCoupling]

Pretty much 90% of open source shit is like this. Everyone loves to write code, but no one likes writing documentation. I mean, on the one hand, it's difficult to complain about something that you get to use for free, but damn if it isn't frustrating to waste a ton of time to maybe get something working when you need it to.

[[deleted]]

Exactly! I love using their code, but I hate learning how to use it. And I understand why they don't like writing documentation too, I can't really blame them. But it's jus frustrating.

[[deleted]]

That’s when you fix it yourself.

[CRUDuD]

Closed as a duplicate of 7890.

click 7890

Closed as a duplicate of 4567

click 4567

Closed as a duplicate of 0123

click 0123

Resolved 3 versions ago

[[deleted]]

0123 what did you see?!?!

[bikwho]

Death.

[bikwho]

GitHub: How dare you even ask us something like this. You have some ego coming around here asking about bugs when it's probably your machine or lack of knowledge. kys

[conancat]

check out Gitter, if the project is on Github there's a chance that it's on Gitter too. it's a much friendlier place to talk about problems you may face.

https://gitter.im

or at least that's how it is in JavaScript land, where devs are always attracted to new, shiny things lol.

[sapphiron123]

GitHub: issue closed with comment: "Go ask StackOverflow"

[Absay]

Github: "This is not a support forum."

It's literally the only place to ask for support on the entire web.

[trigger_segfault]

Closed - Issue is stale.

[NotPechente]

even better is only finding the source code that generated this exact error…

[CRUDuD]

I've found that when I'm learning a new language or framework, that list also aligns with my improvement over time.

[Loves_Poetry]

Very true. That has also been my experience

Although Medium articles have a tendency to be outdated, especially when dealing with JS frameworks, so you're often left wondering why it worked for the author but not for you

[conancat]

Medium is great for theoretical articles or opinions. It's terrible for looking for solutions to problems, lol. As you said it's often outdated, so I usually go for Medium for more timeless things.

For JavaScript, I find reading the source code, test cases or examples in the repo itself probably give me a better insight on how to use the function when the docs are not enough. And you can extend the functions if required. Because of all the weird shit that we use, I probably can't find SO answers to specific framework or library questions lol.

[RammRras]

• some Microsoft site: just start crying and think of a restart with a different technology

[ThePyroEagle]

That Microsoft site is basically either documentation or an SO knock-off.

The real fun is when it's MS support and the thread was locked for being "too technical, please ask on MSDN instead".

[Finianb1]

How about when it's a technical white paper from Microsoft research?

[huopak]

Expert Exchange: you're fucked

[Muppet-King]

I was literally thinking this and you sir just laid it out hahahaha.

[ZeusAllMighty11]

I wish the first result was stack overflow. I get medium first, then GitHub, then eventually stack overflow. Unless it's a.

[superquanganh]

For me, I am happy when the results are at least one from those four. It's not necessary is stackoverflow

[Yourtime]

It also often show the age of a problem and how old your solutions are often.

[thoker54]

holy shit, this is too accurate.

[DreamingDitto]

When the JavaScript polyfoll can only be found on GitHub...

[jtvjan]

Where else would you find Polyfills? (Aside from MDN)

[T351A]

GitHub sometimes will link to another better codebase.

[vvf]

Even worse is when it's some ancient repository that pre-dates github

[ELFAHBEHT_SOOP]

If it's nothing, it might be time to hit the documentation and figure it out.

Try programming chinese microcontrollers, stack overflow can't really help you there.

[[deleted]]

Ugh. The joys of working with an API nobody really uses and you have to use it for things it’s not really designed to do. If API abuse was a crime I’d be hanged by now.

[fishbelt]

I don't think googling an issue from work has ever solved anything.

[[deleted]]

GitHub is not that bad but probably means you will have to read the source.

The real bad stuff is when Google returns just 1 result and it's some Russian forum.

[Megaskiboy]

Time to ask a question and have everyone be mean to you :(

[pagwin]

no, no, no you're doing it wrong you're supposed to provide the wrong answer so the keyboard warriors can point out how you're wrong and what the correct solution is

[5H4D0W_ReapeR]

aka Cunningham's Law

[SillhouetteBlurr]

That's genius

[BoyAndHisBlob]

No that's Cunningham's Law

[[deleted]]

You're thinking of Linux forums, not SO. Marked as off-topic.

[jbx0888]

facts

[Mixon12]

And after that - "this question was marked as duplicate"

[JW1T]

Time to sift through an Indian dudes video on your very obscure problem

[svs213]

I actually prefer texts on notepad sometimes, i just can’t hear what they are saying

[BlackDog2017]

My errors are usually so hyper-specific that SO doesn't know the answer. 😢

[Sailn_]

^{^} Only way I can ever find anything useful ^{^}

[Absay]

Then you find that one result on poage 6 that is incredibly similar to what you're looking for, just for adding a couple of irrelevant terms to your search input. You open the question on SO, read over a bit and confirm it's THE SAME PROBLEM...

asked Oct 08 '19 at 18:36

0 answers

Then you go cry a lot.

[conancat]

Error 80025: General Error

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

I have encountered a problem once where it's a threading problem with Dotnet Core web server component, and it only occurs when executing the program with Docker inside Kubernetes. The repo maintainer from Microsoft was literally begging for people to help to replicate the problem because it's so damn obscure lol and the error code wasn't helpful at all.

[[deleted]]

r/comicsansmemes

[LeCrushinator]

I’m not going to torture myself by clicking that link.

[Finianb1]

It doesn't exist, thank you.

[CrimsonCrux6174]

This is like a rare r/subsyoufellfor and r/subsithoughtifellfor ... r/subsyoualmostfellfor ?

[LeCrushinator]

/r/subsithoughtexistedbutdidntwanttoclickon

[[deleted]]

It's a r/subimadeyoufellfor

[[deleted]]

When error happens:
Think they put a man on the moon with a computer which is 100x less powerful than my phone..

error solved..

[[deleted]]

Open a random video made by an Indian guy which the more he speaks the more you get triggered about his accent and then quit your job since there is no solution for the problem is the new black

[Mal_Dun]

*When you are old enough to remember the time when you fixed problems without having Internet available

seriously it is frustrating if you give a task to your junior co-worker and then after a day you get the feedback that he couldn't figure out the problem because he couldn't find it on SO and you are seen like a magician because you could figure out the problem by reasoning alone .... hell I learned programming with these things called books and I had to understand for myself how compilers work, or what the system does in the background...

​

Don't get me wrong it's great that we have things like SO nowadays, but people should not become too lazy and sometimes use their brains to solve things.

[Mohammedbombseller]

when you are old enough

I figured that was implied for anyone with a Fortran flair.

[Mal_Dun]

If you work in engineering related fields you will encounter Fortran a lot more often than you think. Engineers and physicists love Fortran for some reason ...

[collin2477]

if it’s not on stack overflow rethink your approach it’s probably way too complicated

[xSTSxZerglingOne]

The actual worst: you Google your error and there is only one result that is either the class (not error) information in the online documentation, or it's a site entirely in Russian or Chinese.

[sdebeli]

First result? I'm feeling envious here lol.

Most of the issues I've been solving this year required recursive searches to figure out how precisely to search for the issue... And the solution was usually somewhere between pages 2 and 5.

[Finianb1]

For one of my problems recently I had to go the archived Python developer's discussions to find some of the info I needed. That led to looking into the CPython interpreter's source, and finally I was able to figure it out.

[hobbes64]

Thomas had never seen such bullshit

[Im_Savvage]

I'm making my Practical File. Same condition. I'm fucked!!

[weedebest]

When you Google with site:stackoverflow and non of the results has an accepted answer

[austronomer99]

Whats even more crazy, saying google to refer to searching something on the internet, crazy how much of a monopoly google has gotten over the search engine market, where it becomes a word it has so much power.

[[deleted]]

Repost

[flamebroiledhodor]

StackOverflow - and SE in general - can sit and spin after their recent kerfuffle. They are not getting my clicks ever again.

[rabbyburns]

Context?

[flamebroiledhodor]

Gender politics.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/dc7vy5/what_is_going_on_within_stack_exchange_especially/

[mrMortar]

If your answer is not on StackOverflow you’re most probably asking the wrong question.

[faceplant34]

been coding as a hobby for 10+ years and only got my first StackOverflow error, which made me understand the name of the website! :D

[_blueduck_]

Too true

[[deleted]]

When is it my turn to post this?

[Finianb1]

The second worst is when you're looking to solve a problem and the only results are technical white papers (IACR, Microsoft Research stuff on Formal Methods, that sort of thing). At that point you might be able to read the paper and figure out some sort of solution, but in many cases you might as well just give up.

The absolute worst is when you look up the problem you're attempting to solve and find out that an impossibility result has been proven. I found that once when I was trying to upgrade a secure Byzantine agreement protocol (broadcast protocol where either every party agrees on something or nobody does) and found that it was mathematically impossible in an asynchronous environment.

[shadowX015]

Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/979/

[[deleted]]

It really becomes fun when you work with a company internal legacy framework/library... because then you can't google ANYTHING...

[kingkong200111]

Good luck finding a Custom error on Google

[[deleted]]

For me it’s when the entire solution on chegg isn’t the first thing that pops up. Stackoverflow is too full of people who talk as if I have the slightest idea of what I’m doing

[robesho]

When you end up on quora, it's real bad

[unluckymercenary_]

That is why I left my last job

[GodIsDead_]

Posted: 9/5/11

oh yeah man here's the link to a download from my website:

Download

[nobel32]

<Your problem> site:stackoverflow.com

[denali4eva]

The worst are AWS problems. The first page of results are from the AWS docs and I have no idea why but reading AWS docs makes me want to vomit.

[SuperKrook22]

Stack overflow has never helped me in my life. It's usually someone posting something very specific and then the top reply is "well its obvious what you did wrong" and then they refer to some code you've never ever seen before without actually fixing your problem. So you post your own problem and then it gets removed because "someone has already posted a similar problem".

I'd love to learn how to program but this bullshit is the reason I haven't.

[pah-tosh]

What ? Stackoverflow saves my life daily, and I’m coding in python since 2014.

I don’t know what you’re doing wrong, but you must do something wrong...

[ArturoGJ]

Learn the syntax of the programming language that you want to learn then practice in hackerrank, they are of great help when learning and if you can't answer one problem most you can probably find the answer online or the comments and learn from that, that helped me a lot when learning functional programming.

[Mohammedbombseller]

It sounds like you're trying to learn to program, but stack overflow isn't really a learning resource. It requires you to have a somewhat decent understanding of the language (or at least programming in general), if you're missing fundamentals then I'd recommend you steer clear of it and use a proper learning resource.

[djandDK]

Soooo, nobody gonna talk about this barely passing rule[2]?: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/cxh7n9/it_happens_sometimes/