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Why was this question closed?

The official reason How to script Cursor Pro AI assistant was "Closed. This question is not about programming or software development. It is not currently accepting answers. This question does not appear to be about a specific programming problem, a software algorithm, or software tools primarily used by programmers. You can edit the question so it's on-topic or see if it can be answered on another Stack Exchange site, but be sure to read the on-topic page for a site before posting there."

However, it seems implausible that implementing a 5-step ui-automation algorithm isn't a "programming problem" AND /VScode aren't "software tools primarily used by programmers". Indeed, neither of these tags comes with such a warning. This may be the closest option available in the dropdown, and the actual rule broken is elsewhere.

The only comment suggested that it was because it related to automating "AI prompts". However, I cannot find any rule against asking AI-related questions on Stack Overflow. The question of how automating AI prompts for the purposes of software development relates to programming seemed sufficiently obvious that I presumed it was rhetorical. I did not understand what they were getting at, so I answered but did not get a response.

Thus, I am at a loss as to which rule the question is meant to be breaking. Asking for a "better" solution than the one I suggested may be a little subjective, which can be banned (see: https://stackoverflow.com/help/dont-ask), but it is explicitly mentioned that Constructive Subjective questions are allowed. My question seems to fall under that category.

Now it could be argued that by asking a question about I am asking for customer service with a third-party service, which is banned by "4. Questions asking for customer support with third-party services (such as App Stores) are off-topic for Stack Overflow. Instead, please direct your questions to the relevant company/organisation's technical support team." -- https://stackoverflow.com/help/on-topic

However, looking more closely, we see that the rule is only concerned with asking questions about customer service, such as:

  • How do I get my Facebook developer account confirmation code?
  • Will Apple approve my app, and under what conditions?
  • Where can I download the developer kit?
  • When will [some new feature] be released?
  • Why is [some service] not (working / taking my login / giving me API credentials)? --https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/255745/why-cant-i-ask-customer-service-related-questions-on-stack-overflow

This clarification makes more sense. It would be strange to say that "you can ask about software development tools, except that you can't, because asking about tools is essentially asking for customer service".

After a couple of hours of reading the Stack Overflow rules in detail, I am no closer to figuring out which rule I am meant to have broken.

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    Is there a better way isn't a good question under almost all contexts. In which way better? What exactly do you want to achieve? It may be totally clear to you but it has to be also clear for other readers. If it's a programming task, it must be clear what the task actually is. Commented Aug 19 at 6:40
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    While your question does appear to be about programming (meaning it was incorrectly closed by those close voters), it's currently still off-topic for at least three other valid reasons (needs focus, needs details, primarily opinion-based). Generally speaking, the community does not reopen questions that are still off-topic for another reason, so it is up to you to edit your question to fix those other issues before it can hope to be reopened. Commented Aug 19 at 13:34
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    That being said, given your question's current score, it's probably better for you to abandon this question entirely and post an entirely new one, taking care to make sure the new question is specific and objective. Focus on a particular scripting/automation language and a specific command or two that you want to automate within the Cursor IDE. Commented Aug 19 at 13:35
  • @TylerH "Primarily Opinion Based"? Because I used the word better once? Can anyone here imagine a solution that is worse than using an unreliable tool that depends on undocumented and frequently changing assumptions? Setting a hypothetical configuration option to "Continue until done?"... clearly better. Using a documented and presumably reliable API? Clearly better. Using a scripting language built into the IDE? Clearly better. Commented Aug 19 at 22:06
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    @gmatht How many times do you think you need to ask an opinion-based question before it is an opinion-based question? Personally, I think once is enough. If it is so easy for you to explain in more objective terms what you mean by "better", you should just take the time to use that language in the question in the first place. Put some effort in when you're asking other people to help you for free. SO questions aren't some throwaway conversation in an elevator with a colleague, they're stubs for collecting quality programming answers for the benefit of programmers everywhere. Commented Aug 19 at 22:08

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I agree that this is sufficiently about tools used primarily by programming to be on-topic in that regard, however it is neither adequately focused nor objectively phrased.

These tasks seem to be more appropriate for a poorly written Perl script than a computer scientist or engineer. I could write a AutoHotKey/Python script to fiddle with the GUI, but is there a better way to automate this?

We don't deal in "better ways" here, nor in open-ended "ways to automate" tasks on a computer with programming.

It is your responsibility to, at a minimum, choose a programming language and/or relevant tool(s) etc.

Questions here aren't about improving your workflow; they're about you learning the answer to a question. You don't have to actually have a concrete problem in order to ask, but you do need to describe one.

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  • Hmm, the tool was Cursor IDE? This seems like it would be a problem that anyone would have tried to use Cursor something slightly repetitive would have had. Using AutoHotKey has obvious disadvantages which I felt it was not obvious to set out. A solution that didn't depend on undocumented assumptions on the layout of the UI would obviously better. Commented Aug 19 at 1:30
  • AHK scripts also seem to depend on monitor resolution, monitor DPI, timing issues and as far as I can tell, also the phase of the moon. Commented Aug 19 at 1:43
  • Finding the good automation tool is the hard part here. I don't know how to automate Cursor reliably. If I knew of a tool/API that could reliably interface with Cursor, I would presumably have no difficulty implementing a simple 5 step algorithm in it. Commented Aug 19 at 1:50
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    @gmatht : Stack Exchange has a site to ask for software recommendations --> Software Recommendations Commented Aug 19 at 1:52
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    And for the general question about automating some workflow, Super User seems to be a better fit than Stack Overflow. Commented Aug 19 at 9:17
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    "Hmm, the tool was Cursor IDE?" — it doesn't matter what you're trying to automate. it matter's what you're trying to automate it with. Unless you're expecting an automation to be built into the IDE, you'll have to choose between AHK or other tools that interact with a GUI. "If I knew of a tool/API" — such recommendations are explicitly off topic and it's at least possible that people voted that way because they thought you wanted such a recommendation. Commented Aug 19 at 12:08
  • Well, since Cursor is a programming tool I would hope that it had some sort of inbuilt feature or api for this. Programmers typing "continue" every couple of minutes isn't a good use of their time. Alas Windows tools may lack such basic functionality? Commented Aug 19 at 12:39
  • Like Cursor has technology that can pass the Turing Test, but "Send 'continue' every couple of minutes" without relying on hackish unreliable third party tools is beyond them? Commented Aug 19 at 12:48
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    @gmatht Cursor itself is a unreliable third party tool. The fact that you have to jump through these hoops proves it. Commented Aug 19 at 13:03
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    "You don't have to actually have a concrete problem in order to ask" Actually Stack Overflow is for specific, practical programming questions, so yes, askers do need to have a concrete problem to ask here. Otherwise they should ask on Software Engineering.SE instead. Commented Aug 19 at 13:31
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    @TylerH As an example I can ask how to call a method in X without actually having that problem myself so no I don't have to have that problem. The problem still needs to be concrete and answerable. Commented Aug 19 at 14:00
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    But that's what the quoted sentence is meant to say "You don't actually have to have …" As in you don't personally have to have. Commented Aug 19 at 14:51
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    "Programmers typing "continue" every couple of minutes isn't a good use of their time." — I don't know if they implement anything better, but that is a question for their support. Commented Aug 20 at 1:46
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    @TylerH what cafce said. I specifically distinguished "having" a problem from "describing" a problem for that reason. I was referring to things like self-answered questions and artificially asked canonicals for beginners. Commented Aug 20 at 1:49
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    "Any question one asks is a question one has, technically." Sure, but question does not mean the same thing as problem. If you ask a question about a problem, that does not imply that you experience the problem. Commented Aug 20 at 12:51

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