The art of problem solving on JamiesWhiteShirt's Ramblings
Troubleshooting is about diagnosing and fixing an issue with something that doesn’t work the way it should. This resource describes a general approach to troubleshooting.
The first part of troubleshooting is classifying and identifying your problem.
If you are following a tutorial, ensure you are following the steps correctly and not deviating too much. You might have forgotten a step. A deviation from the steps described in the tutorial might also be the cause of your issue. Be careful with this when you are unfamiliar with the subject. You can follow the tutorial first, then make your own changes later.
The form of the actual solution and how you will find it highly depends on the problem. You need to be able to classify the problem first. Is it an error? Is it a problem with your code syntax? Is it a problem with a model? Maybe you are trying to find out how to do a certain thing.
You have a Java syntax error! It means the Java compiler doesn’t understand your intention. This is the most basic of errors. Copy the compilation error into the search engine of your choice, and you will most likely find a link to a popular Stack Overflow post on the subject with good answers.
Attempts to ask for help with these errors usually fall short: You will be told to learn Java. If you want to learn some Java concepts, now is a good time. Try to understand why your code doesn’t compile, and how the solution you find resolves it. The things you learn along the way might be useful in the future!
Usually the cause of the error can be found in the console. Look for stack traces or error messages among the many lines. If you are clever, you might be able to determine how to fix your problem based on what the console tells you. If not, you could consult greyminecraftcoder’s troubleshooting guide.
Asking for help with this will often take more time than resolving the issue yourself. This is because you are the one with easy access to the mod’s JSON files and textures. You will find that communicating your files and folder structure is necessary and difficult.
This class of problem is more difficult to troubleshoot because crashes can be caused by a multitude of things. Resolving these problems on your own requires a basic understanding of programming. You must first determine the cause of the issue.
Inspect the type and the stack trace of the exception that causes the crash:
java.lang.NullPointerException you have most likely accessed something that has not been initialized.
Maybe you did something in the wrong order?If you cannot determine the cause of the crash from the exception, try isolating the problem. Disable parts of your code, narrow it down to a specific part, and work from there.
It is generally OK to ask for help with this class of problem. As with any other problem, you should still do your research beforehand. Make sure to specify what you were trying to do that caused the crash. You will likely be asked to share your code. Don’t be afraid of doing this, because nobody wants to steal your code.
This class of problem is similar to crash problems. They can be caused by a multitude of things, and resolving these problems on your own requires a basic understanding of programming.
Here are some common errors:
To attempt to understand why the thing doesn’t work, you should try to:
System.out.println to print debug information to the console. Use it to verify that your code is called and with the values you expect.System.out.println in your code obsolete because you can retrieve more or less the same information.When searching or asking for help with this kind of problem, saying it “doesn’t work” is never specific enough. Your helpers are not clairvoyant. Your query must consist of these three parts:
It is generally OK to ask for help with this class of problem. As with any other problem, you should still do your research beforehand. You will likely be asked to share your code. Don’t be afraid of doing this, because nobody wants to steal your code.