# Should we have a canonical/FAQ answer regarding minimization of “Boolean” (i.e. propositional) expressions?

It seems that whenever there are some students taking a digital logic class, we get a lot of those relatively low-effort questions on SO, EE.SE and here. As far as I can tell, the reaction has been most negative on EE.SE, e.g. see this (that question is probably among the better ones on this topic.) I found that even repeatedly telling people in comments they can use this or that software to check their answers is tedious enough.

So perhaps we should have a canonical answer here with maybe an example and indication how to check work via software? Some questions are just "check my work" from people who have learned the basic minimization concepts like the one linked above, but others are even more basic, asked by students who are tasked to minimize via identities and who are yet unaware of minimization theory. At the other end of the spectrum, please note that sometimes questions ask for gate-number minimization (aka multi-level minimization), which a different/advanced topic, but often enough confused with the CNF/DNF minimization by people doling out answers and even by some voters (on SO anyway); this latter topic is rather more difficult to cover in a reasonable-sized FAQ entry, so perhaps just pointing out the difference and some refs would suffice for that.

• In general I consider ‘please check my work’ questions good ones, no matter how elementary. And as I’ve said before, I don’t think that canonical answers are very useful. – Brian M. Scott Feb 19 '15 at 20:34
• @Brian M. Scott: I couldn't help but notice how much the prevailing opinion on this matter ("check my work") varies across different SE sites. – Fizz Feb 19 '15 at 22:02