Why is this question closed as off-topic?

Question

What algorithm to use for substractive machining RT simulation?

Regarding this question, I am asking about the current state of the art, that is, the proper algorithm for this problem.

To put an example, if I was asking for algorithms to parse, there is no opinion-based answer: context-free grammars are parsed by LL(K) to LR(K) parsers based on properties of the grammar itself. This is not opinion based.

To put another example, if I was asking about 3D shape optimization: there are strictly defined algorithms about it: octree, LoD, spacial indexing, etc. and the usage of each of them is defined by it usage (moving elements, etc.) There is not opinion-based answer.

Getting back to this question, it does not ask for "libraries" or "books" or "examples" where any web-page could fit, it ask for a specific problem with a specific solution.

Also, the answer is not trivial: you can search online and will find very little information about the topic.

Finally, asking for a "paper" is not any random opinion-based resource. Otherwise, asking for the c++ standard name would be "asking for resources", most of computer science algorithms, data structures, project management appeared in some paper. Asking for a paper is to ask for the reference for a specific solution/technology, asking for an algorithm or for it paper is about the same.

I conclude that this question is not opinion based, has value for future readers and fit in this community of "Software engineering" as described by "architecture, and design".

So my question here is: why is this question closed?

Answer 1

The Help Center article What topics can I ask about here? says:

Some questions, even if they appear to fit into one of the above categories, may still be off-topic:

...

• Product or service recommendations, including tools, libraries or packages, programming languages, books, scholarly papers, tutorials, articles, or blogs

Algorithms are not mentioned explicitly, but I guess it was closed for that reason. The standard go-to for recommendations is our sister site Software Recommendations, but they don't do algorithm recommendations either. That page does mention a potential solution: another sister site, Computer Science. See Are questions about algorithm recommendation accepted here? on their Meta site for more information.

Answer 2

I am pretty sure the question was closed because it explicitly asked for a paper. Many of our community members interpret that "off-topic" reason very literally, regardless if the question would be ok without such a request. This is surely debatable, since I often see good answers for software-engineering questions which have an increased value because they provide helpful references to external papers. However, the scope discussion for this site lasted several years and ended finally in what we see today on the site's help page. I don't see a huge chance to change this.

I took the freedom and removed that problematic sentence. Normally, you could wait for the community now if they reopen the question. However, since you crossposted it already to another site, and crossposts are frowned upon the SE network, I recommend to delete the question on one of the sites.