I'm about to start building a new app, and am wondering which stack site is most suited to asking questions about best options for my requirements. For example, if I were to need HTML parsing but didn't yet know of the great combo of Python and BeautifulSoup, where would I go to ask that question? Stack Overflow? Programmers?


Thanks for the responses. To follow up just a bit, since this is meta, I'm wondering whether there needs to be some place for this kind of questioning. I can search all I want, taking stabs in the dark with a partially-formed idea, not knowing which path is a good one to follow. But if I could ask a question---in a community that welcomes it---that asks about some possible routes to follow for a particular problem, it would be helpful.

With my particular question right now I'm not yet sure which language to choose, whether I need a web app framework or should use built-in capabilities, etc. Being able to benefit from others' experience, as a guide on what to research, would be helpful.

At the same time, I do understand the ideology here that desires answerable questions, not open-ended ones, so it would still require care to ask questions that could be comprehensibly answered.

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Ask about the specific problem you are trying to solve, and not about tools/libraries recommendations. Recommendations will appear in answers naturally. –  Yannis Dec 1 '12 at 20:54
my issue right now is that the specific problem is still pretty general in terms of my ideas of an appropriate technology path (language, framework, ?). but i will think about how to frame it as a question in this vain. –  mix Dec 2 '12 at 6:26
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2 Answers

I would say that unless your question can be narrowed down to:

I am trying to accomplish X in a certain language, but this is not possible with the native libraries. Is there a way for me to accomplish this?

it is probably not a good idea to ask it on SO. Certainly a question that polls for the "best" library for a job is likely to be blammed as NARQ.

The best way to find out about this sort of thing, however, is to simply use a search engine. You can also look into open source software that is similar to yours, and see what libraries they used to accomplish a certain task.

Note: As Bill has pointed out, by specifying that you are looking for libraries, you are limiting the problem space unnecessarily. A snippet that solves your problem using native tools is no less valuable to you than a library. With this in mind, it is probably best to not mention libraries at all when you ask your question, and simply state what you are trying to achieve.

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Better still to just ask how to do the task in the language instead of explicitly asking for a library. By asking how to do the task your question is open to code and library solutions. If a library exists, then it will surely be among the top answers. Asking for a library limits the range of responses. –  Bill the Lizard Dec 1 '12 at 21:41
@BilltheLizard I think that is the best approach. –  Asad Dec 1 '12 at 21:44
understood on the libraries. –  mix Dec 2 '12 at 6:27
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Non of them.

Asking for options is globally considered as shopping questions on the Stack Exchange network.

In the FAQs this falls under the Chatty, open-ended part.

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