[erlang-questions] What problem are we trying to solve here? [was Erland users group [was re: languages in use? [was: Time for OTP to be Renamed?]]]

[Gordon Guthrie]

This is what I sent to Francesco

****************************************************************************************

*Building The Erlang Community*

*Background*

Erlang has long lacked a solid community core to act as a place where users
can discover existing modules and include them in their projects.

*rebar *now provides the standard mechanism to include external
dependencies - this proposal is about making erldocs the standard place to
discover community contributions.

*Proposal 1*

The proposal is that people who publish open source Erlang modules on
GitHub be able to have them listed on erldocs.

The process would be two part:

   -

   commit a page called *ERLDOCS.terms* to github in the root next to
   *README.md*
   -

   submit the URL to a page on erldocs
   -

   erldocs would sook the github page into a community section


 The structure of the *ERLDOCS.terms* file is simple tagged tuples,
something like:

*{name, "Starling"}.*

*{license, "EPL"}.*

*{description, "Unicode support for Erlang"}.*

*{details, "A C-Port wrapped around the ICU library for unicode"}.*

*{status, "production"}. % alpha | beta | production*

*{rebar, {version, "1"}, {starling, {git,
"git://**github.com/hypernumbers/starling.git
<http://github.com/hypernumbers/starling.git>**","master"}}}.*

*Proposal 2*

Dale Harvey originally intended that erldocs should include the ability for
members of the community to annotate the official documents with examples,
links to tutorials etc, etc.

erldocs be so extended (by use of Disqus or other standard commenting
systems)

*Requirements For Success*

Erldocs 'failed' last time out because the OTP team changed the way
documents were generated, and Dale Harvey moved on from an Erlang shop to
Mozilla.

In order for this to work Erlang Solutions has to commit to:

   -

   erldocs being the official community repository for Erlang documentation
   - linked to directly from *erlang.org <http://erlang.org/>*
   -

   production of these documents needs to be integrated into the OTP Team's
   release schedule

*Modalities*

If Erlang Solutions so agree the next stage would be to approach a number
of suppliers of top-notch Erlang open source and sign them up for launch.
My working list would be:

   -

   Erlang Solutions
   -

   Basho
   -

   Erlware
   -

   Mats Cronquist
   -

   Richard Carlsson
   -

   Yaws
   -

   Mochiweb
   -

   Nitrogen
   -

   Cowboy
   -

   Web Machine
   -

   Hypernumbers


 There would need to be consultation with the launch group regarding the
structure and elements of the term file.

Once they were onboard and the production cycle had been tested - an open
launch on the mailing list.

****************************************************************************************

The key point is that a community is only a real community if you choose to
join it. I was 'joined' to the Agner community (and there have been other
attempts, Erlware, CEAN, etc) but they don't stick.

Gordon


On 17 February 2014 22:28, Mark Allen <mallen@REDACTED> wrote:

> On 2/17/14 4:21 PM, "Garrett Smith" <g@REDACTED> wrote:
> >> On 2/17/14 1:51 PM, "Vixo" <gordon@REDACTED> wrote:
> >>>My suggestion would be a manifest file of Erlang terms at the root level
> >>>of a GitHub page (they will *all* be on GitHub) that can be polled and
> >>>turned into a static site. The logical thing to do would be combine thus
> >>>with the revived erldocs site IMHO (as I have said to Francesco)
>
> >Does this require that all of github be crawled?
>
> No. I'm pretty sure we can segment the crawl to only projects with some X
> threshold of Erlang. (I'll have a slice without so much rat in it. [0])
>
> >Would a github based index make sense? Complete with a liberal pull
> >request policy?
>
> Most likely, yes, using github pages with a nice custom domain would be a
> Good Thing for this type of project.  The code to do the crawl and build
> the index should be open source too, imo.
>
> Mark
>
> [0]:
> http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Monty_Python's_Flying_Circus#The_Money_Program
> me_.5B3.03.5D
>
>


-- 
---
Gordon Guthrie
CEO vixo.com
@gordonguthrie
+44 (0) 7776 251669 (in Bonnie Scotland!)

vixo is made in Scotland from electrons
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