What should I do if I have problems using free and open source software?

When many people use open source software, because they are "not good at" asking questions, they have brought a lot of trouble to the open source authors and themselves. This article combines the "Community Posting Specification" shared by LeanCloud engineers to share some small experiences on how to ask questions. , to help people get resolved faster when they encounter problems.

before asking

Before contacting an open source author, we can try the following:

• Read open source project development documentation
• Find answers in Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Try internet search keywords to find solutions

When encountering a problem, we can first try to solve it by querying the document. Generally, authors of open source software write a document to help users. In the process of using open source software, some questions can be answered in the document, if not, we can also find the answer in Stack Overflow (especially the more popular open source software) and the issue of this open source software in the github repository (if This open source software has a repository on github) and try it out.

When there is too much content in the document, you can also try to use search keywords to quickly find the corresponding content.

Question Specification

First of all, we should write a good title, try to describe the problem in one sentence, and indicate the language and platform used.

Correct example:

1. When the Mini Program uploads data to the real machine, the Class table name displayed in the console storage is compressed into a single letter.
2. When configuring a legitimate domain name for download, it displays "This domain name is prohibited from being set due to violation."

Error Title:

1. Help, suddenly it doesn't work
2. In the past two days, some people have reported the same problem, but it still doesn't work.

In addition to describing the problem clearly, it is best to provide some more detailed information, which can help the original author to locate the problem faster and propose a solution for you.

• Describe the problem carefully and clearly, including cause and effect
• complete reproduction code
• Provide environmental information such as hardware devices, operating systems, software versions, networks, etc.

Note:

When the question involves the code part, be careful not to use pictures to show the code, because no one will type the code according to the picture.

Social etiquette

Open source software authors are usually not obliged to help us solve problems for free, so when asking for help, explain your intention and use polite words such as "please" and "thank you" to thank the authors for their free time to help us, and a friendly and polite way of socializing. would increase our chances of getting a useful response.

Finally, I hope that everyone can learn how to better solve problems after reading this content. The relationship between users and authors of open source projects is not a relationship between Party A and Party B. This problem" mentality and common input will lead to more excellent open source projects.