This page's shorter URLs are http://tinyurl.com./e6m6 and http://makeashorterlink.com/?W19122E08.

This page has been translated into Bulgarian by Марио Асенов, has been translated into Turkish by Necdet Yücel, and has been translated into German by Dirk Sohler.

Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no" as the answer.

You've come to this page because you've asked a question in one of the following forms

and then been surprised when receiving the logical "yes" or "no" answer.

This is the Frequently Given Answer to such surprise.

Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no" as the answer. If you didn't want either "yes" or "no" as the answer, then you should have asked a different question.

Don't ask Does anyone know … ? questions unless you truly want to know whether or not anyone knows.

Don't ask Can someone … ? questions unless you truly want to know whether or not someone can.

If you want to know something else, ask the question whose answer it is that you actually want.

For example:

If you want to know how to capture console I/O in Win32, don't ask

The answer to both questions is either "yes" or "no". Either there are people that know how to capture console I/O in Win32, or there are not. Either someone in the world can help you with capturing console I/O in Win32, or no-one can.

Instead ask the question whose answer is the one that you actually want:

How do I capture console I/O in Win32 ?

© Copyright 1995–2004 Jonathan de Boyne Pollard. "Moral" rights asserted.
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