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Choosing between Stack Overflow and Programmers Stack Exchange

What is the difference between Stack Overflow (stackoverflow.com) and Programmers SE (programmers.stackexchange.com)?

Edit: That is strange, this question is marked duplicate of a question that did not even exist until 6 months later. I would expect it to be the other way around.

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You don't need to have any programming skills on the latter –  random Oct 23 '10 at 14:32
it's covered in the /faq for both sites. Just click through.. –  Jeff Atwood Oct 23 '10 at 17:02
@Random Psh, that's the elitist attitude. There are plenty of wonderful things on Pr I can't find on Le Overflow. –  Mark C Oct 23 '10 at 18:23
See also the official FAQ entry, which is much more recent than this yet somehow managed to avoid being closed as a dupe when it was new. –  Pops May 27 '11 at 16:15
Regarding the direction of the duplicate. If the later question is "better" (is better phrased, has better answers,...) then it's perfectly sensible to direct people to the one with the "canonical" answer. –  ChrisF Jul 8 '11 at 14:27
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marked as duplicate by Anna Lear, Dori Jul 7 '11 at 0:01


2 Answers

up vote 36 down vote accepted

StackOverflow = Programming (code, algorithms, languages, etc)

Programmers.SE = Programmers (people, techniques, etc)

Here's the relevant parts from the two FAQs (emhpasis added):



  • a specific programming problem
  • a software algorithm
  • software tools commonly used by programmers
  • matters that are unique to the programming profession



This can include topics such as:

  • Software engineering
  • Developer testing
  • Developer tools and techniques
  • Practical algorithms and data structures
  • Design patterns
  • Architecture
  • Development methodologies
  • Quality assurance
  • Software law
  • Code golf & programming puzzles
  • Freelancing and business concerns
Subjective does not mean "anything goes".

See also: http://meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/408/does-objective-vs-subjective-confuse-the-purpose-of-this-site

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I see there are many differences. I think the issue maybe has to do something with the name "Programmers". People visit programmers site and think it is all about codes, but when they get there, see a lot ethereal questions! :) –  Junior Mayhé Oct 23 '10 at 17:24
The only problem I see with this is that one could go from stack overflow easily into Programmers area, but it'd be hard to do it otherwise. i.e. to be better Stackoverflow would need to a bit more specific towards 'code' and 'hands on' in its descriptions. Also, notice "matters that are unique to the programming profession" probably destroys the whole argument. –  Lela Dax Jan 24 '11 at 21:06
My first thought on ProgrammersSE was 'What's the difference?' then my second thought was 'What a huge grey area, things are going to get messy', but now that I've sort of taken 10 minutes to establish the differenc, it makes more Logical sense... but in reality, I think it probably didn't need to diverge from SO –  David van Dugteren Jun 24 '11 at 0:54
+1. Great explanation. The Programming / Programmers difference finally let me understand it. –  Stefan Steinegger Aug 30 '11 at 8:17
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Stack Overflow is typically for problems that involve code. So you'll have a piece of code that doesn't work. You've debugged the problem, searched the internet but still haven't worked out what's going wrong. You'll strip the problem down to the minimum amount of code and post that.

Programmers is for problems that affect programmers that don't involve code. This covers things like "How do I retrofit automated tests into legacy code", "How do I give a presentation on design patterns" and (possibly) "Should I include this information on my CV?".

However, I should point out that there is a grey area which includes questions like "Which algorithm should I use to do this?" and "Which language is most appropriate for this problem?". Though you should have a specific problem in mind when you post these.

What Programmers is not for is "What language should I learn next?", "What chair should I have?", "Should I take this particular job I've been offered?".

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