Java: HINTS.md for exercises with position 21 or greater?

[dawcars]

I have noticed that some exercises with position 21 or greater do not have HINTS.md. The wording of the POLICIES.md section on 'starter implementations' for exercises 21+ is a little unclear. Is it a requirement that HINTS.md should be there if the implementation stub is not there or is this only for exercises with complicated method signatures? Some exercises have neither HINTS.md or implementation stub and I just wanted clarification on how it should be.

[Smarticles101]

The POLICIES.md doc is in the process of being updated. (See #685). I think that the idea is after exercise 21, users should be pretty familiar with everything and should be able to write the solution completely by themselves. The HINTS.md file in an exercise should be used for any "interesting" aspects. Looking at these files in different exercises can help give you an idea of what they are for.

[dawcars]

Thanks @Smarticles101. So, if I am building an exercise, do I only add a HINTS.md file if there is something in particular I think would help the user or is this something that definitely has to be there if the stub is not there?

[stkent]

It's fine for there to be both no stubs and no hints :) Thanks for checking!

[dawcars]

Thanks @stkent. That's good to know.

[stkent]

No problem! If you're interested, the available 'template' files are listed in the Exercism docs repo, though in most cases you'd need to actually inspect the source code of trackler (which assembles exercise READMEs) to determine whether any given template file is required or optional. (In general, I believe it's safe to assume optional unless otherwise noted!)

[dawcars]

Those links are really helpful. I did not know about trackler. Thanks @stkent

[Smarticles101]

Looks like this is cleared up now