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Welcome to Software Development on Codidact!

Will you help us build our independent community of developers helping developers? We're small and trying to grow. We welcome questions about all aspects of software development, from design to code to QA and more. Got questions? Got answers? Got code you'd like someone to review? Please join us.

Discussions and feedback about the site itself in Q&A format.

Filters (None)
77%
+5 −0
I comment on an answer on my question, and get this error: "New users can only comment on their own posts and on answers to them"

I'm the author of this question: What is the advantage of creating instances from a method rather than constructor? A user provides an answer and I want to open a comment thread. I get this respons...

1 answer  ·  posted 3d ago by Ooker‭  ·  edited 1d ago by Monica Cellio‭

bug comments abilities beginner-questions
96%
+46 −0
How can we grow this community?

Codidact's communities have a lot of great content that is helping people on the Internet. Our communities are small, though, and sustainable communities depend on having lots of active, engaged p...

19 answers  ·  posted 3y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 5d ago by Karl Knechtel‭

discussion site-promotion
70%
+5 −1
Do we want MathJax?

Some Codidact communities have MathJax enabled, which allows using mathematical notation in posts. For examples of what this looks like, see the end of the Mathematics Codidact formatting help. Wo...

3 answers  ·  posted 3mo ago by trichoplax‭  ·  last activity 19d ago by Michael‭

discussion
75%
+7 −1
How to handle correct answers that also include spam?

A recent answer on Software Development was correct, but was included spam / self promotion (unrelated to the question or the answer). The answer was edited to remove the spam, but it was suggeste...

4 answers  ·  posted 26d ago by Alexei‭  ·  last activity 19d ago by InfiniteDissent‭

discussion answers spam
80%
+6 −0
Call for moderators (2025)

The Software Development community on Codidact recently reached an important milestone. Thank you to everyone who invests in building this community. We'd like to ask for a little more help. Ale...

1 answer  ·  posted 2mo ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  edited 2mo ago by Monica Cellio‭

discussion moderators
89%
+15 −0
A milestone for Software Development - congratulations!

When we launch a community on our network, it starts in "new community" mode to ease bootstrapping. This means that all users start with the Participate Everywhere ability, which lifts new-user re...

1 answer  ·  posted 3mo ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 2mo ago by Karl Knechtel‭

discussion announcements
66%
+4 −1
codidact profile editing requires 30 characters but has no error message

Editing one's profile on codidact is problematic. Evidently it needs to be 30 characters or more, but there's no error message, there's just a red box around the profile post and then the save but...

1 answer  ·  posted 3y ago by daveola‭  ·  edited 4mo ago by Alexei‭

bug status-completed profile-page
75%
+4 −0
Comparing our site scope to Stack Overflow

We've had discussions before about the site's intended scope (range of permissible topics and questions), but for new users coming from the Stack Exchange network, I think it would be useful to dra...

2 answers  ·  posted 5mo ago by Karl Knechtel‭  ·  last activity 5mo ago by Lundin‭

discussion scope stack-overflow
75%
+4 −0
What is the difference between `back-end` and `backend` tags?

I found two tags: back-end and backend. Should we merge them?

1 answer  ·  posted 6mo ago by talex‭  ·  last activity 6mo ago by Andreas demands justice for humanity‭

discussion tags
75%
+4 −0
RSS feeds for tags

How can i get a per-tag RSS feed? I only see the general feed at the main pages and i don't want to subscribe to tags via email.

1 answer  ·  posted 11mo ago by JohnRando‭  ·  edited 6mo ago by Monica Cellio‭

feature-request status-completed
66%
+2 −0
Question/Answer views on Codidact

Where can I see the number of views for a specific question/answer? It motivates if i know more people are seeing the Question or Answer

1 answer  ·  posted 6mo ago by Abbas Gadhia‭  ·  last activity 6mo ago by Moshi‭

feature-request
90%
+17 −0
Why using images for code, errors, logs or similar should be avoided?

I have noticed that virtually any question containing an image of some code or error got a comment asking to replace it with the actual code, error text. Why is it so bad to include an image inste...

1 answer  ·  posted 3y ago by Alexei‭  ·  last activity 6mo ago by Andreas demands justice for humanity‭

discussion
71%
+3 −0
Closing self-answered question due to not being clear enough

I have a hard time deciding if How to get conditional running cumulative sum based on current row and previous rows? should be closed or not. As mentioned in the comments, it was already flagged t...

3 answers  ·  posted 9mo ago by Alexei‭  ·  last activity 7mo ago by Lundin‭

discussion content-quality
60%
+1 −0
I created a tag, now it need edit.

I created stream tag, but can't edit it. It should at least have java as parent tag.

2 answers  ·  posted 7mo ago by talex‭  ·  last activity 7mo ago by Lundin‭

support tags
71%
+3 −0
Tag full names.

Currently we have composite tag names like node:stream. That tag have Node.js as its parent. I propose to display child tag with its parent, for example `Node.js:node:stream'. It will require ren...

0 answers  ·  posted 7mo ago by talex‭  ·  edited 7mo ago by talex‭

feature-request tags
77%
+5 −0
Where should I ask git questions?

Where should I ask questions about Git?

2 answers  ·  posted 8mo ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 8mo ago by Monica Cellio‭

discussion
75%
+4 −0
Should beginner-oriented Q&A here include basic use of a terminal (command line) for developers?

It seems that year over year, computers constantly get easier to use, and it becomes easier for people to start learning to program who have never touched it before. This comes with the consequence...

3 answers  ·  posted 9mo ago by Karl Knechtel‭  ·  last activity 9mo ago by matthewsnyder‭

discussion scope beginner-questions
77%
+5 −0
Is my question a duplicate? What now?

As part of a general effort to produce basic Q&As for Python, recently I've been focused on issues related to starting up an interpreter and running the code - so, questions about setting up an...

0 answers  ·  posted 10mo ago by Karl Knechtel‭

discussion duplicate-questions canonicals self-answered-questions
37%
+4 −8
Don't close questions for lack of detail/confusion

tl;dr: When a question is unclear, don't close right away, especially if it's possible to discern what they are trying to ask. Instead, use comments and edit suggestions to work with the asker and ...

4 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 10mo ago by John C‭

discussion moderators content-quality
60%
+1 −0
Issue with the Monospace font [duplicate]

I was trying to ask a code review question but I have observed that it does not support the "Monospace font" for code excerpts properly. It is only considered partially and I see this particularly ...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by aditya98‭  ·  closed as duplicate 1y ago by Alexei‭

support code-formatting
66%
+2 −0
Is there a workaround to highlight code blocks if the language doesn't have syntax highlight enabled?

I've seen that recently two requests to add syntax highlight to some languages were deferred (this and this). According to the status-deferred tag description: "the requested feature will not be i...

0 answers  ·  posted 3y ago by hkotsubo‭  ·  edited 1y ago by hkotsubo‭

discussion code-formatting syntax-highlighting
80%
+6 −0
Is software system design on topic here?

Is software system design on topic for the software development site? For what I mean by system design, consider the "system design interview" commonly held these days when recruiting software eng...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Lundin‭

discussion scope
76%
+8 −1
Email alerts for notifications

How can I get an email when I get a notification on Codidact? I missed an answer because I thought I would get an email for it.

2 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by LyndonGingerich‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Olin Lathrop‭

support feature-request notifications
75%
+4 −0
Participate Everywhere ability without meeting the requirements?

I noticed I have the ability Participate Everywhere even though I do not meet the requirements (Having roughly 75% of my posts to be positively received, with a minimum of 5 positively-recieved pos...

2 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by Ethan‭  ·  edited 1y ago by meta user‭

bug status-bydesign abilities
83%
+8 −0
Enabling 2FA should include some recovery codes

After enabling two factor authentication (2FA) for my account I'm only notified It is successfully turned On. I think it should include some recovery codes as well (to be used in case I can't acce...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by lealceldeiro‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Monica Cellio‭

support feature-request status-completed
71%
+3 −0
I can't choose any tags when posting a question

The problem described below occurs in Windows 10 and Chrome 87.0.4280.66 (64 bits, JavaScript enabled). I could post this question only in mobile (Chrome/iOS 14.2), where the problem doesn't occur....

0 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by hkotsubo‭  ·  edited 1y ago by hkotsubo‭

bug status-completed tags
83%
+8 −0
Should posting on Meta affect reputation?

When we launched this community, we did not yet have the ability to set different reputation grants for different categories. We've had this for a while but we failed to follow up before now, sorr...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  edited 1y ago by Monica Cellio‭

discussion
71%
+3 −0
Allow tagging answers with tools and version numbers

TL;DR If we allow answers to be tagged with technologies and version numbers, people can more easily check if an answer is applicable to their technology stack. A few days ago, I had a problem in ...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by FractionalRadix‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Monica Cellio‭

feature-request answers
50%
+1 −1
The way I tried to mark up code did not work. What is the right way to do it?

The way I tried to mark up code did not work. What is the right way to do it? The line break after the first signal is ignored. Some languages use a hash as a comment. Here, it bolds the line, ac...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by TecBrat‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by TecBrat‭

support code-formatting
33%
+1 −4
Suggested special feature: Clinic/case study

We have special features/sections on Codidact, so maybe this is a nice use for them. What if we had a section named something like "clinic" or "case study" or "debugging"? (name suggestions welcom...

0 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  edited 1y ago by matthewsnyder‭

discussion feature-request
71%
+3 −0
Handling common wrong approaches and misguided motivations for basic technique questions

Background This is inspired to some extent by https://software.codidact.com/posts/289597 . I'm trying to provide a large amount of content (gradually!) that novices (mainly to Python) will find u...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Karl Knechtel‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Lundin‭

discussion answers canonicals xy-problem
75%
+4 −0
Should self-answered Q&A use separate answers for different techniques/approaches (even if there's a caveat that applies overall)?

Looking back at my own Q&A How can I build a string from smaller pieces?, the answer is incredibly long. I'm essentially showing five different ways to solve the problem - because they all exis...

2 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by Karl Knechtel‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Lundin‭

discussion answers self-answered-questions
71%
+3 −0
Are questions about (abstract) algorithms and datastructures considered on-topic?

I just noticed this question about data structures in the Q&A. Although algorithms and data structures are often (part of) a solution to a problem when writing software, this question is const...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by mr Tsjolder‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Karl Knechtel‭

discussion scope
75%
+4 −0
Tags are highlighting while my favourite tags is empty

My favourite tags is empty. Although, some tags are highlighting. Usually, I was using another account earlier. I forgot (lost that gmail address) password (I can reset but, I don't want to use tha...

2 answers  ·  posted 3y ago by Anonymous‭  ·  edited 1y ago by Alexei‭

bug status-completed tags highlight
77%
+5 −0
What categories could we benefit from having?

So far, existing Meta discussion seems to have at least hinted at the possibility of using separate categories here: To shuffle closed questions out of the way (globally for Codidact) (also) Fo...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Karl Knechtel‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Lundin‭

discussion site-culture categories
84%
+9 −0
On self-answered questions, is it inappropriate to mark my own answer "Works for me" immediately?

Would it discourage others from posting answers, if they saw that a question had an answer with a "works for me" indication applied immediately? (More so than just seeing an immediate, comprehensiv...

3 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by Karl Knechtel‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by matthewsnyder‭

discussion policy site-culture self-answered-questions
81%
+7 −0
Should asking about book recommendations directly connected to software development be on-topic?

Context We have recently received a suggestion to allow questions about recommending books directly connected to software development. The way I see this now (pros and cons) Pros: allow more ...

7 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by Alexei‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Karl Knechtel‭

discussion questions ontopic
80%
+6 −0
How should I organize material about text encoding in Python into questions?

I want to write one or more self-answered Q&As on the topic of text encoding in Python, to serve as canonicals and preempt future lower-quality questions. I can think of the following things th...

3 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by Karl Knechtel‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Karl Knechtel‭

discussion scope content-quality
75%
+4 −0
Tag creation/deletion criteria for Software Development?

Ok so we have fairly lax tagging rules here, as do most Codidact sites. Recently the Electrical Engineering community has started a clean-up of strange and off-topic tags. I wrote this over there: ...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by Lundin‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Alexei‭

discussion tags
76%
+11 −2
Do we want a wiki (or similar) alongside Q&A?

In addition to Q&A, Codidact supports another post type, article. Articles can be used for blog posts, wiki pages, and other resources. Articles, like questions, use tags, so searching for a ...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by matthewsnyder‭

discussion
77%
+15 −3
Questions easily answered by studying a beginner-level book

This scenario is not yet a problem for this site, but we will get there, since it's a huge problem for Stack Overflow: Someone just picks up a well-known programming language for the first time. T...

6 answers  ·  posted 3y ago by Lundin‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Karl Knechtel‭

discussion on-topic
75%
+10 −2
Should we disallow ChatGPT-User crawler (and others) from scraping Software Codidact?

Stack Overflow has recently announced OverflowAI and I think this video summarises pretty well this. The main drawback is that the users are less incentivized to put effort into answering questions...

2 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by Alexei‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by mr Tsjolder‭

discussion
75%
+4 −0
How can Q&A sites coexist with LLMs?

New LLMs like ChatGPT are now creating competition with Q&A sites like Codidact and StackOverflow. Moreover, this is parasitic: LLMs get "boosted" by Q&A sites because they can use them for...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by matthewsnyder‭

discussion
88%
+13 −0
To transfer, or not to, that is the question: whether 'tis nobler to let it stay or to take arms against Stack Overflow's dominance of FAQ canonicals

Some of you may know me from Stack Overflow or the broader network. In light of recent actions by the company, I finally decided to move over to Codidact. I am a subject matter expert on Google App...

5 answers  ·  posted 1y ago by Oleg Valter‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by Lundin‭

discussion canonicals stack-overflow
75%
+4 −0
Are AI prompt engineering questions on topic?

Recently, AI models like ChatGPT have shown themselves capable of generating content and even source code. Just like with human helpers, clear and precise communication is key (especially when aski...

1 answer  ·  posted 1y ago by matthewsnyder‭  ·  last activity 1y ago by manassehkatz‭

discussion
75%
+4 −0
Self answered questions about an unclear quickstart

I had problems following the directions of a Google Apps Script API quickstart. I think that the quickstart instructions and code is incomplete. After a while, I finally realized that there was mis...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Wicket‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Alexei‭

support
75%
+4 −0
Best practices for posting tabular data

I am trying to find how tabular data is presented in Software Development. So far, I have found one question, How to pivot text?. The question presents tabular data using code blocks, dash to indic...

3 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by Wicket‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Wicket‭

support syntax-highlighting
77%
+5 −0
Should I delete my trivial, lack-of-research question?

I asked this trivial question recently: DocuSign eSignature API SDK: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError errors. It turns out, my problem was because I did not do enough research before asking a quest...

3 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by Vanity Slug ❤️‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Wicket‭

discussion
71%
+3 −0
Spreadsheets apps as end user development tool / spreadsheet formulas as a form of funtional programming

I have found Can we migrate office suite related questions to the Power Users community?, apparently, with a score of +7, 3 answers, but it looks like no decision have made so far. Despite not hav...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Wicket‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by LAFK‭

discussion scope
60%
+1 −0
Merge spreadsheet formula tags into single tag

Codidact's Software Development has multiple tags for spreadsheet formulas: excel-formula libreoffice-calc-formula openoffice-calc-formula sheets-formula It has formula with the tag usage ...

1 answer  ·  posted 2y ago by Wicket‭  ·  edited 2y ago by Wicket‭

discussion status-completed tags