News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on You can't parse [X]HTML with regex (2009). Parent comment

Re:You can't parse [X]HTML with regex (2009) by shawnz on Friday March 05, 2021 @07:23AM (#26356031)
I don't think it is disrespectful to suggest someone is falling victim to the XY problem.

Actually I think it is a common and expected outcome that when investigating a new problem, we often get stuck in "XY problem" traps while researching the solution.

I very much value any feedback that suggests I should rethink the entire problem with a simpler model, because without experience it's hard to know what the simplest models are.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:You can't parse [X]HTML with regex (2009) by anaerobicover on Friday March 05, 2021 @12:38PM (#26359521)
Absolutely agree. In my experience this is one of the more valuable features of asking someone to discuss a problem I'm mired in. Because they haven't been looking under every rock and studying the bark of every tree like I have, they're very likely to quickly see when I've wandered into entirely the wrong part of the forest.
[ Parent | on HN ]