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    Is it unreasonable to expect some kind of demonstration of what the code will 
    accomplish before having to actually write a project which uses it?
You think that perhaps danudey needed to stop for a moment and have a quiet think about that before posting it?

Perhaps word it in a more friendly way somehow?

Perhaps that it was a bit too harsh, and humiliated the original author?

I totally get the basic point you're making, but it's just completely ridiculous to be making it in this specific case.



You think that perhaps danudey needed to stop for a moment and have a quiet think about that before posting it?

Yes, and he should produce a tree of possibilities and if he doesn't have evidence precluding them all, he should briefly hypothesize about the most likely positive possibility while making his request for further information.

Another way to interpret this: He should think like a creator as opposed to a consumer. I think it's fair to ask this of visitors to GitHub, as it's fundamentally a site facilitating the process of creation.

We all need to do more reflection before writing, myself very much included. Unfortunately, the reward structure of the Internet combined with human nature seems to encourage the opposite.




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