On Wednesday, 2 December 2015 at 21:46:39 UTC, Andrei
Alexandrescu wrote:
There is awareness. Good documentation is something we know we
need and is an ideal to live into.
Problem is prioritizing. I must be spending cumulatively a
couple of hours everyday just deciding what to work on next.
Forty-six emails are waiting in my Inbox, earliest from
September; most likely their senders either have long forgotten
about them, or are wondering about my manners. But each is
nontrivial. Some are one mini-project each, and some are major
projects in themselves.
There are occasional mini-fires on the forum, and literally I
could fill every day with work suggested on the forum. I'm
trying to delegate as best I can. As is widely known around
here, that works only sometimes, and sadly not always things
are done the way I'd wish are.
At the same time my mind is burning at both ends with work on
the containers. Which are going to be awesome. There's so much
going on, I find myself scheming and running calculations first
time I open eyes in the morning (actually even before :o)) and
last time before I fall asleep.
In this context, it's very difficult for me to think, "Sure,
the best work of my life can wait. Now let me sit down and
write a good tutorial."
I thought dedicating my time to D will make things much easier
- but in fact the added focus and productivity only piles more
things on the plate!
Andrei
This goes without saying. Nobody in the community expects you or
Walter to write a tutorial how to contribute to D. The points
made here refer to the fact that every so often you post a thread
asking people to contribute and mention the documentation among
other things. However, it's not really easy to get involved,
because information is hidden - "Getting involved" is not even on
the front page - and while there are steps that describe how to
pull and push with git, there are some steps in between that are
not 100% clear due to git not being the friendliest tool to work
with, and github adds yet another layer of complexity. What needs
to be added are tips & tricks along with typical pitfalls and
common mistakes (cf. bachmeier's post).
Many people have mentioned that they _would_ contribute, if it
didn't take them hours of trial and error to get things working
(even long standing contributors have said that it can be quite
nasty at times). I think the lack of action on the side of the
community can be attributed in parts to the relatively high entry
threshold for even trivial changes.
On a lighter note, I know how it feels when you think about a
project when you go to bed, and again before you even open your
eyes in the morning. I find that it helps _not_ to think about
these things too hard when you're "off" (whatever that means in
your case). Personally, I have better ideas, when I detach myself
from a project, do something else and come back with a fresh
head. But everyone is different. I don't know what works for you.
