Questions about Temple OS?

Question

I don't exactly understand the topic here,

• computer software

Is a bit vague. The "Help Center" goes on to say

• programming and software development

is off topic. Let's say though there was an operating system that was made to educate users on software development, that required basic knowledge of C. Would questions be on topic here if C was often how you went about accomplishing those tasks? What about if the tasks require no knowledge of programming concepts?

Take for instance these questions,

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50264004/does-templeos-5-03-have-after-egypt-and-other-utilities
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50257134/how-do-i-find-out-what-version-of-templeos-i-am-running
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50259091/how-do-i-export-the-files-of-templeos-to-the-host-operating-system
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50266458/how-do-you-use-supplimental-isos-with-templeos
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50260790/templeos-sound-with-virtualbox
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50262702/process-management-in-templeos-listing-and-killing-processes
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50239317/is-there-anyway-to-correct-from-this-screen
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50242900/where-can-i-find-the-source-code-for-templeos
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50239415/why-cant-templeos-run-on-modern-x86-64-machines
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50239212/how-do-i-enable-tab-completion-in-templeos

From paid employee, Robert Cartaino

End use of an operating is what Super User was created for. We don't wish to split off a subject covered by another site based on how "non-mainstream" someone might feel it is. - Robert Cartaino

Answer 1

More or less. We don't want people dumping their pure programming questions on SU. This happens a lot, especially with people question banned on SO.

As far as the spirit of the rules go on Superuser - we try to help folk with the process of using their personal computers on a daily basis, as opposed to writing software for them or running systems in a professional level.

The frustrating thing about throwing a big list of questions at us, with only a small part of the help quoted is - we miss a lot of chances for context.

Its worth taking a look at a few hard and soft rules - is this a practical question? Is it a product or learning material recommendation?

Something like this or this for example may be closed as a product recommendation. This one feels really broad .

Some folks may also question how useful Templeos questions are to the broader public. Amusingly this question might be useful to non templeos users for example.

My advice would be to take this in mind, scope around the site a bit, and work out what you think would work for us with these examples in mind and try reasking.

I'd also close by saying many of these questions could be answered in the documentation on any well developed, planned OS (and they may not be here), but considering templeos's unique history, and interest in it as a historical curiosity, I personally would take these questions based on how they are written, and remember that this is literally one guy's project, with unusual inspirations.

Answer 2

Questions involving programming can be on topic

Let's say though there was an operating system that was made to educate users on software development, that required basic knowledge of C. Would questions be on topic here if C was often how you went about accomplishing those tasks? What about if the tasks require no knowledge of programming concepts?

In general, questions about an operating systems can be on topic, as long as they stay within the rest of the guidance (ie no software/hardware requests, no "code writing service" requests etc). This holds true even if there is programming involved.

See for example this answer in relation to batch programming:

There will always be overlap in what a scope allows. Personally, I use Stack Overflow just for questions that are purely programming based, that will be compiled into a program. Batch files are just lines of commands, freely editable, and user accessible. You do not need to be a professional programmer to do batch programming.

The overlap between SO and SU is well-established, and there are few questions that could be validly asked on either site- if they are good.

or in other topic areas:

• Preferred location for "shell scripting" questions
• should [mathematica] usage/programming questions be on-topic on SU?
• At what point do regexes become programming questions?

Consider your audience

Your unstated second question -- whether those particular questions would be a good fit for Super User -- as to how the community would respond to the questions themselves is a bit trickier to answer.

Questions with a narrow focus are not as well-received as questions with broad applicability*. The unstated assumption there is that questions with a narrow focus are less valuable to the community than those with a broad focus.

Additionally, certain operating systems attract poor questions because -- if you'll forgive the generalisation -- people don't invest sufficient time to understand them to ask a good question in the first place. A good question is generally well-researched, shows what has been attempted and is answerable.

In short: Being on topic alone does not a Good Question™ make.

^{* there is no close reason for being too narrow (as opposed to too broad), but niche questions tend to attract less views, votes and answers}