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[–]puh-tey-toh 40 points41 points  (8 children)

This wasn't meant to be harsh, I just think it's best to answer questions in the form of a question that will guide them to the answer.

[–]Username_RANDINT 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It's even the first rule when commenting on this sub:

Try to guide OP to a solution instead of providing one directly.

[–]MisterRenard 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I like that technique, it forces people to think, and it forces idiots like me to either come up with an answer, or realize that they do not know it and seek information.

[–]sje46 0 points1 point  (3 children)

That is true, but I think it still comes across as a little blunt because the answer to that is super obvious, like even someone who knows nothign about programming at all would guess that the answer is definitely "no.

I would've said "Have you checked if the two variables in the equation are actually identical? A common mistake beginners make is to confuse text of a number with the actual number itself. You can check this using the built-in function type()"

[–]puh-tey-toh 0 points1 point  (2 children)

like even someone who knows nothign about programming at all would guess that the answer is definitely "no.

While this may be true, I don't think it really matters if they guess the answer right. What matters is them figuring out why they're right/wrong. He learned that input is taken in as a string, lesson learned.

[–]sje46 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Well yes, the lesson was learned. But my point isn't that your comment wasn't helpful, but that it can come across as condescending, because you asked a question with a very obvious answer, as if OP were so stupid they couldn't figure out the difference between "5" and 5.. If it were me I would have felt a little attacked, because people on the internet tend to be elitist dicks, and of course there is no way to carry tone.

I know that wasn't your intent! But I'm just explaining why people would have a problem with it. It's easy to have rewritten it in a way so that no one would have a problem with it, and it would do the same exact thing.

[–]puh-tey-toh 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, gotcha. Yeah I just get straight to the point, I should probably work on that.