Community and Github: 7/27/2011

Andy Lester @petdance Projects,Communityand Github

What we’ll cover• Presenting your project to the world• Managing the development process• Side trip to diversity• Your experiences

Why to stay• Perspectives on community & you!• Adorable Octocat art!• Tips for patch management!• Star Trek references!• Release management!• Sweaty Steve Ballmer!

Who is Github for?

Developers,developers,developers,developers,

Github is notfor end users.

Whoo! Exposure!

Github is for those who like tobuild from source.

Your usersprobably dont.

To the newcomer, the source tree is unimportant.

Just because we’vepublished code doesn’t mean we’re done.

Whats it do?Whats it look like?Do I want to use it?

That means:Screenshots and installation

Make a project site!

Make a project site.

Make a project site.• Answer the newcomers questions.• Aimed toward the end users. • Users who are not as ninja as you.• Make download + install incredibly obvious.• It can be on github, but not the default github project page.

Get your own domain.• Not tied to github, in case things change.• $10/year = dirt-cheap investment• Which is easier to remember? • http://github.com/petdance/ack • http://betterthangrep.com/

Visible, documented releases matter!

Releases matter!

Release for simplicity

Release for simplicity• Releases are an afﬁrmation: "Yes, you can use this."

Release for simplicity• Releases are an afﬁrmation: "Yes, you can use this."• Single, veriﬁable tarball.

Release for simplicity• Releases are an afﬁrmation: "Yes, you can use this."• Single, veriﬁable tarball.• Nobody wants to run autoconf.

Release for simplicity• Releases are an afﬁrmation: "Yes, you can use this."• Single, veriﬁable tarball.• Nobody wants to run autoconf.• Users expect them.

Release for history and visibility

Release for history and visibility• Lets others build on your work.

Release for history and visibility• Lets others build on your work.• Maintain an accurate, human-written changelog of all releases.

Release for history and visibility• Lets others build on your work.• Maintain an accurate, human-written changelog of all releases. • A dump of commit messages is not a changelog!

Optimize for your users sake, not your own.

The needs of the manyoutweigh the needs of the few, or the one.

The needs of the usersoutweigh the needs of the project team.

About me

About @petdance• Perl guy: ack, prove, WWW::Mechanize• Programming for money since the 1980s• I sling PHP for B2B web apps for a midsize corporation.• From the midwest, Chicago area

A little bit about ack

Github projects have a low barrier to entry.

The good part:Anyone can do it.

The bad part:Anyone can do it.

Newbies expect theirchanges to be accepted.

"Cant you just...?"

Be gentle in your rejections. Brevity may beperceived as harsh.

That box is too small.

You want to acceptchanges from newbies if at all possible.

Dont reject patches just because of...• No tests• No documentation• Not following code standards• Those can all be ﬁxed!

The other day I got this in the mail...

I am happy to suggest use cases that Ihave found useful. What is the best way -to mailing list, on a wiki somewhere,email to you.Dont quite feel up to being moreproactive. I am dyslexic and find writingstuff hard (and finishing of writing etc).

Make a project guide

Make a project guide• Small chunks of the elephant

Make a project guide• Small chunks of the elephant • "TODO: Better error handling" is not helpful to the newbie.

Make a project guide• Small chunks of the elephant • "TODO: Better error handling" is not helpful to the newbie.• Project direction

Make a project guide• Small chunks of the elephant • "TODO: Better error handling" is not helpful to the newbie.• Project direction• Coding standards

Make a project guide• Small chunks of the elephant • "TODO: Better error handling" is not helpful to the newbie.• Project direction• Coding standards• Workﬂow + branch strategy

Monitor your network

Thank you• Put yourself in the newbies shoes.• Make a project home page outside Github.• Visible, documented releases matter.• Optimize for others, not yourself.• Use Github to encourage your community, not fend it off.• Thank you for listening and for Githubbing.

Community and Github: 7/27/2011

by Andy Lester

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