When you have a question, it's likely that you are not the first one with that problem. Therefore, before troubling your fellow Ranchers, perform some searches to see whether you can find your info that way.
There are several ways to search:
Use the JavaRanch search feature. The link can be found at the top right of each forum page. You can use this to search a specific forum.Use Google to search the BigMooseSaloon, by adding "site:www.coderanch.com" to your search terms.YOu can search this FAQ by using the search form at the upper left of this page.Use Google to search the whole web - after all, you might even get your info elsewhere! (Yes, it's hard to believe, but there are useful places outside the Ranch...)
Also don't forget to search resources specific to your question: the FAQ to your product, the archive of specialized mailing lists, the index of the handbook, the online help of the tool you have a problem with,
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/ and
http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/ for
Java itself etc. pp.
If you don't find something and decide to post your question at the
BigMooseSaloon, it is a good idea to *tell* us that you already tried to search (and possibly even what search terms you used).
This shows that you care enough about your question to
ShowSomeEffort before asking others to spend time on it.
Also take a look at our other tips on
HowToAskQuestionsOnJavaRanch!
See also
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#before
