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I would like to know if a question with a following structure would be on-topic on this site.

I want to use IDE A with support for server B on a platform C. (A, B, and C are well-known and widely used though not neccessarily together).

I have stumbled on the following incompatibility that apparently has been in place since [year] according to [post/bug report/vendor forum discussion].

My questions are:

  1. Vendor of the incompatible SDK released a new re-branded package. Does it by any chance cure the problem?

  2. [This site] recommends uninstalling the offending SDK (as one of the two suggested solutions). How do I find out what installed software on my system can be negatively impacted?

  3. Another suggested solution was to disable [something] in the IDE configuration. Will it impact anything else other than [this feature]?

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Questions about technical issues with specific programming tools are on-topic at StackOverflow. If you're just trying to get the thing to work, or wondering if it has a feature for X, then it should go on that site.

Over here the on-topic tooling questions would be higher-level issues like how or why you should use a certain feature, whether this workflow or that workflow is better in a given situation, and so on.

Topicality aside, all SE sites would prefer that you ask "one question per question", so you may want to focus primarily on one of those three subquestions, or perhaps ask multiple questions.

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  • Actually my initial question was posted on SO. It described an error I was getting and asking for a possible cause. It was answered and the cause (with very high probability) has been identified. My next question (as posted here) was about the best way to fix the problem.
    – PM 77-1
    Commented Jun 6, 2015 at 18:53
  • Choosing the best way to fix a problem given certain trade-offs can certainly be on-topic here, since that gets into things like project management. But it sounds like you don't know if any of these potential fixes actually exist or work yet, in which case you probably still want SO.
    – Ixrec
    Commented Jun 6, 2015 at 18:58
  • I know that they work. I actually have already implemented one. And there are posts on a vendor forum acknowledging the the other one works as well.
    – PM 77-1
    Commented Jun 6, 2015 at 19:13
  • Ah, in that case, you could ask an on-topic question here about which is the better choice, as long as you explain to us what it is about the fixes and your project that makes it difficult for you to simply pick one yourself.
    – Ixrec
    Commented Jun 6, 2015 at 19:17
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Vendor of the incompatible SDK released a new re-branded package. Does it by any chance cure the problem?

This is likely off-topic everywhere. You need to check the documentation from the vendor. If you have a more advanced question that cannot be answered by the documentation and cannot be easily found via web search then it may be on-topic at Stack Overflow as long as you phrase it correctly.

Asking "does package X for SDK Y fix bug Z?" will likely not fly at Stack Overflow. A better question is "I am trying to accomplish W with SDK Y, but bug Z prevents it. Is there a workaround? I hear update X may fix it, but so far it has not worked for me. What else can I do?"

[This site] recommends uninstalling the offending SDK (as one of the two suggested solutions). How do I find out what installed software on my system can be negatively impacted?

"Too broad" anywhere you ask. We do not know what is on your system. Categorically off-topic at Programmers, possibly on-topic at Stack Overflow if you can be very specific.

Another suggested solution was to disable [something] in the IDE configuration. Will it impact anything else other than [this feature]?

Try it! You can always re-enable it. Again, this may be a question for Stack Overflow. "I disabled feature X to address bug Y, but it had side effect Z. How else can I work around bug Y without causing side effect Z?"

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