Policy towards "Is there a way/tool to ..." questions

Question

On StackOverflow, there are lots of questions being asked in the form "Is there a way to do X? What library/tool can I use?"

Such questions usually have certain common traits:

• they don't contain code;
• they don't contain any indication of the research done by the asker (they may write "I've searched for that on Google with no luck", but even this is usually not the case);
• sometimes, the asker doesn't even care to specify the language to be used;
• obviously, the asker hasn't tried anything (because they don't know how to start).

A lot of such questions seem to deserve a close vote (especially when the 3rd point is present). I'd like some guidance here, though.

1. Are such questions on topic? I.e., do they qualify as "related to a specific programming problem"?
2. Am I right in my feeling that if no language is specified, then it's probably not a real question?

To sum up, how do I decide if I should vote to close, and what reason should I specify?

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Additional considerations:

There basically are two ways to answer such questions:

1. Post a name of/link to a library/function/tool that solves the problem (basically, a link-only answer that, as such, is subject to deletion)
2. Post a full solution. This is fine, but looks like doing all the work for the OP.

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Clarification: I know that I shouldn't vote-to-close all such questions. The decision has to depend on the question quality. I'm asking how I can evaluate the quality of such questions.

From the answers given so far I gather the following:

• try to see how much effort was put in the question;
• try to see if the user seems capable to solve their problem (a very arguable point, in my opinion);
• consider the scope of the problem. This is a good point, and obviously there are certain limits (too localized and overly broad close reasons), but I'm mostly asking about the middle ones. Let's say, reasonably scoped.

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All right, my first attempt at generalization of the thoughts from the answers and comments would be the following:

When in doubt, think about how a hypothetical answer to the question would look, or what answer does the OP expect, or maybe what answer would help the OP the most. If the OP's question can be fully answered in a post of reasonable length, it probably can live. If one can either post a whole computer science course or a link only, then it's not a suitable question.

This may be helpful, and it also agrees quite well with the general approach to closing, I think. Can anyone comment on this interpretation or add anything?

I can say that I know of at least a couple of exceptions, i.e. questions that are a basically a collection of links (with very brief descriptions) that gain a lot of views and upvotes and generally very useful for people. I guess it's because they are non-trivial. Here's an example. The question is not that short and obviously shows that some research has been done, though.

Answer 1

I see absolutely no problem with questions asking "Is there a way to do X? What library/tool can I use?" providing X is clearly defined.

Asking if there is a way to do something, or for a specific library/tool that accomplishes a specific task is very different from asking a "shopping question". A "shopping question" is usually a very broad request with no parameters given, and it ends up generating a big list of everyone's favorite X with no reasons as to why (since the parameters are unknown), and every answer is equally valid.

To address your concern about having no code or language specified, let me quote the FAQ:

We feel the best Stack Overflow questions have a bit of source code in them, but if your question generally covers …

• a specific programming problem
• a software algorithm
• software tools commonly used by programmers
• practical, answerable problems that are unique to the programming profession

… then you’re in the right place to ask your question!

Per the first sentence, its best if your question's have some code in them, but its not mandatory. Bullet points 2 and 3 often don't have code as well, and may not even specify a language.

That's not to say you shouldn't vote to close these questions at all. If the question is overly broad with no parameters given (such as "What library/tool should I use to build a website?"), or fails other quality standards, don't hesitate to vote to close it and/or leave a constructive comment guiding the user to improve their question.

But don't decide to vote to close just because there's no code or language specified, or because the title sounds a bit similar to one of the many shopping questions you see getting closed.

Also as a side note for answering these kinds of questions, be sure to say why your tool/library is the solution to the problem. Don't just post a link going to the library, or it is likely to get deleted.

Answer 2

Questions that meet most of those criteria can actually be very good.

consider This (voted 4) question I've asked recently

I'm trying to write a surface tablet app that often can go multiple minutes between receiving
input.

The problem is, that if i don't keep touching the screen, the power saver will activate, and
the screen will automatically go black, and it disrupts the user of the app.

Is there a way that my app can prevent the power saver from activating, or at least extend
the time it takes for the power saver to activate.  

It has 3 of your 4 bullet points

• no code
• no indication of reasearch
• no information on what I tried

But would you consider that to be a bad or off-topic question?

Answer 3

Depends on what the author want to do in my opinion.

I would only post a full solution, if the language is specified. Without I think it's not wrong to give some hints what might help the problem.

I've got to add: a lot of stackoverflow users are new to this kind of community here. As for instance I am. So in the beginning a lot of people aren't even aware of how they should ask correctly so that they will get an appropriate answer. So in my opinion as I said above, its better to ask the author for a more precise question before finally closing a question.

Answer 4

It depends. Sometimes the OP is asking for the name, package, class or some other reference to an API or a class and is obviously capable of moving forward with that one jumpstart. I'm happy to answer these questions and will always vote to keep open. Other OP's, by their questions, appear to be incapable to building the solution themselves, whether it's because they don't know the language or don't know how to program. I put most homework questioners in this category. I'm eager to close these questions as being not appropriate or not a question.

Answer 5

A question shouldn't just ask for a tool/API. That is functionally identical to a shopping question (or at least all of the negative points apply equally to such questions). So if someone asks, "what API/tool can I use to do X" the question would need to be rephrased as "how can I do X" to not be closed as "not constructive". Now, an acceptable answer might be, "you could use tool Y to do X, here is an example of how it can be used to solve your problem, this is why it's helpful and what it does, [...]".

Phrasing the question as just asking how to do X may be too broad, or it may not be. It will vary based on the specifics. It doesn't need to have code, but it would be best to have some demonstration of effort. The scope of the problem also matters; if there's no way that a solution could be acceptable with several paragraphs as an answer then the question is too broad.