On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 2:52 AM, David Seikel <onef...@gmail.com> wrote: > While on the subject of basic source documentation for the masses - > > Is it really that hard to put at the top of a README file basic details > of what any given project actually IS? Half the time when I'm trying to > figure out what some random E project I've not paid attention to in the > past actually is all about, I'm none the wiser. The README is either > completely empty (coz autofoo enforces it's existence, but not it's > content), or completely fails to answer the question "Um, so what's it > about?". > > Half the official websites about software projects have the same > problem, you look at their front page, and all you see is "YAY! version > X.mumble of foobaromatic has been released.". Nothing about what > foobaromatic is, and why the casual visitor should care. If you are > lucky, there might be an "About" link to a page that says "Foobaromatic > is a gestalt fromulator. It fromulates gestalts better than the others > coz we take more interesting mind grommeling drugs than the other > gestalt fromulator developers.". > > Some people have gone to those websites coz a search engine popped it up > as a result to their query, and they are looking at it to see if that > page actually has any relevance to what they are searching for. > > At least the enlightnenment.org webiste is better than that. But a lot > of the E SVN README files (probably the first thing people look at to > see if the project might be interesting to them) leave a lot to be > desired. Likely for the same reason as the web sites. It's important > to the developers to make important announcements about the progress of, > um, whatever it is. Perhaps at the very beginning, they forgot to > ever describe, um, whatever it is. You know while they where busy in > the orgiastic throws of starting to develop the exciting new, um, > whatever it is. > > The projects name might not be a clue when it's often more important to > start the name with the letter E than to be very descriptive of the > project. For example, entrance was somewhat descriptive, elsa, um > that's a girls name like PAM, but will most people understand the > relevance of the name to the project? Elsa's README at least tries to > say what it does, a lot of projects in E SVN don't bother.
some people are considering themselves as coders only and dont want to do slave and bothering stuff like filling correctly README or NEWS or ChangeLog, or doing administrative tasks. They prefer others doing that job because they have a high opinion of what they do. Some other people try to take time to make that project a serious one, by taking some time : correctly filling the files, making advertising on other sites, creating an association and a paypal account, etc... Vincent ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cloud Services Checklist: Pricing and Packaging Optimization This white paper is intended to serve as a reference, checklist and point of discussion for anyone considering optimizing the pricing and packaging model of a cloud services business. Read Now! http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfnl/114/51491232/ _______________________________________________ enlightenment-devel mailing list enlightenment-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/enlightenment-devel
