I forgot one - if you start thinking there's a bug in a library, reduce your code to the smallest example that reproduces the problem. If you get it down to 5-6

I forgot one - if you start thinking there's a bug in a library, reduce your code to the smallest example that reproduces the problem. If you get it down to 5-6 lines you're going to either (1) remove something along the way that fixes the problem and gives you a clue or (2) you will have something you can post in message boards when you ask for help. You'll also have a shortlist of functions that you can search for in stack overflow, and compare you example to theirs.