How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
A Chinese translation of Eric S. Raymond's guide on how to ask technical questions well.
- Stars
- 36.1k
- Forks
- 5.8k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- JavaScript
- Last update
- 1.8 years ago
- Type
- Learning resource
No commits in over a year — check for forks or alternatives before adopting.
What it is
This is a Traditional Chinese translation of Eric S. Raymond's essay 'How To Ask Questions The Smart Way'. It teaches people how to search first, pick the right forum, and write clear, specific questions so they get useful answers from experienced people. It is a reading guide, not software.
- Read the checklist of things to try before asking a question
- Learn how to write a clear title in the form 'goal -- difference'
- Use the guidance on describing symptoms in order when reporting a problem
- Browse the section on how to read and respond to answers
Great for
- Newcomers to open-source communities who want to ask good questions
- Chinese-speaking readers who want the original essay in Traditional Chinese
- Teachers or mentors who want a reference to share with students
- Anyone who has been ignored or answered with 'RTFM' and wants to understand why
Not ideal for
- People looking for software to install, since this is a text guide with no program to run
- People who want direct technical support, because the guide itself says it does not provide support for any project
- Readers who need the Simplified Chinese version, which the README links separately
How to get it
- 1
Read it online
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ryanhanwu/How-To-Ask-Questions-The-Smart-Way.git - 2
Run it
- Open the README on GitHub
- Read the 'Before you ask' section
- Read 'When you ask' and the example titles
- Check the table of contents for the parts you need
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Read the 'Before you ask' checklist before posting any question
- Follow the linked history.md to see how the translation evolved
- Compare with the original English essay linked in the README
Downloads
Strengths
- Covers a long-standing topic with concrete examples
- Free and open under the MIT license, with a clear history of translation
- Easy to read in one sitting
Trade-offs
- The tone is blunt and can feel harsh to some readers, which the text itself acknowledges
- Some references point to older forums and mailing-list practices that may be dated
- It is a translation, so some nuance may differ from the English original
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.