As I work in Tech Support, sometimes, I get support cases with questions that I need to clarify due to ambiguity.

Just last night,  I was reading and reviewing Stephen Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to refresh my memory on how to be more effective.

I was reading a section where a father asks his son why he hates school. And there was a part which says that in order to understand, you need to listen well.

In support, I think that is quite relevant.

For example, if you've received the following question with the title “JB2005:  Exported ant build fails due to code version”, how would you answer it?

“It seems to me that JBuilder might contain the ability to compile Java 1.5 sources that use Java 1.5 features like generics to Java 1.4 class files, and nothing else can do that, so it is actually impossible to export it to ant. Is this true?”

At first glance, the customer seems to be asking a simple question. However, on further consideration, it appeared to me that there are three (or four) questions in there.

It seems to me that the user was asking one of the following questions.

  1. Is it possible for JBuilder to compile Java 1.5 source code that use Java 1.5 features to Java 1.4 class?
  2. Is it possible to export a project (that uses Java 1.5 features and compiles it to a Java 1.4 class) to Ant?
  3. Is there any product out there that compiles Java 1.5 source code that use Java 1.5 features to Java 1.4 class?

Or is the user trying to point out a bug in JBuilder?

What do you think? What is the question?

PS: For those who don't know what Ant is, it's a build tool.