Purpose: a discussion of some of the information you should be prepared
to provide when asking someone for help and where you can go to ask for help.
----
Here are some of the places on the internet where questions relating to
how one programs in Tcl, or makes use of Tcl, can be discussed.

   * news:comp.lang.tcl
   * http://www.tcl.tk/ forums
   * http://wiki.tcl.tk/ 
   * [Tcl Chatroom] interactive discussion area

----
[LV]:

   * My first suggestion is to take several deep breaths, as it sounds like you are about to hypervenilate.

   * Be prepared to show what your current code looks like.
   * As specifically as possible, tell what it is that the shown code should do. If your code is very long, feel free to visit the wiki's [graffitti] or [new pages] page and start a new wiki page and just glue your code in there and then give a url.  Or, if you have your own web page, just give a url to that.
   * tell what kind of computer and operating system you are using, along with what version of tcl/expect ...

These steps will help you in that focusing on positive actions should
slow down your heart rate and regulate your breathing... and for us
it provides us a common background from which to try to help you.

[Cameron]:
On communicating code fragments and the limitations of this medium: the constraint is a good thing. Working to reduce your situation to a textual description augmented by at most a couple of lines of code is sure to benefit everyone concerned.

LV: Good point - I really hammer my users on this point. Handing me a foreign piece of code thousands of lines and procs long is guaranteed to cause me to try to hand it back ... On the other hand, showing me a small piece of code - hopefully stand alone so that I can try it on my machine without having to load and build a thousand pieces - results in me being able to 'tinker'.

DNew: Also, it can be helpful to describe the larger, over-all problem in addition to the Tcl question you have. You may be seeking help getting a sub-optimal solution working, or someone else may have already solved the larger problem for you.

[[Months later, [CL] muses on the idea of construction of [minimal example]s.]]
----
A crucial topic dual to this page is,
"[How to read answers posted on the comp.lang.tcl newsgroup]".
----
See also [The comp.lang.tcl newsgroup] and the [Tcl chatroom].
See also "How to Ask Questions the Smart Way"
[http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html].
----
[LV] later muses that often he finds the person asking the question is ''too close to the trees to see the forest'' - that is to say, asks questions about the immediate error rather than stepping back and seeing if there are more fundamental misunderstandings or assumptions.