I think your point is totally valid, and I feel that I already saw such
discussion in the mail list.

You can simplify the process by searching a piece of the documentation in
github.  For example, I search for a piece of the docs from rackjure (1)
which is the second result in my search.


(1)
https://github.com/search?l=&q=macro+automatically+adds+the+parentheses+language%3ARacket&type=Code


On Thu, Dec 5, 2019 at 12:27 PM David Storrs <david.sto...@gmail.com> wrote:

> For the record, my big concern with the documentation is that it's
> extremely hard to contribute to.  I would be delighted to contribute
> documentation if the process was easy, but it's just not.  For a language
> as amazing as Racket and a documentation set as high-quality as Racket's,
> the difficulty of helping with it is surprising.
>
> tl;dr :  Using literate programming techniques(*) for documentation is a
> bad idea.  So is having random tiny files scattered around instead of one
> single .scrbl file in a location that maps to the URL of the page.
>
> (*) (i.e., having random tiny files with documentation on one particular
> thing and then automating the process of assembling them)
>
>
> My understanding is that the sequence goes like this:
>
> 1) Notice a thing you would like to change (a typo fix, add an example,
> etc)
> 1a) Ask on the mailing list how to contribute changes since the Guide /
> Reference / package does not have clear directions built in
> 2) Go to Github
> 3) Find which racket-related repository is the one that matters for this
> documentation.  The Racket project itself has half a dozen repositories and
> it's not obvious (to me, at least) which one is which.  Things on the
> package server will have a direct link, which helps a lot.
> 4) git fork the appropriate repository, git clone it to your local machine
> 5) grep -r through the clone to find the document that you want to
> modify.  It will not be in a location apparent from the URL of the page you
> were looking at, nor will it be named what that page was named, nor will it
> contain all of the content from that page.  Also, it will be in Scribble,
> which is a DSL that requires non-trivial effort to learn and is non-trivial
> to read.  Still, it produces amazing output so that's probably worth it.
> It's intimidating when you're just getting started, though.
> 6a) make your change
> 6b) google for how to rebuild scribble documentation
> 6c) rebuild (by default this will rebuild all documentation), verify you
> made the change correctly
> 7) git commit, git push
> 8) go back to github and submit a pull request
> 9) (when (eq? (sync pr-msg-ch) 'Accepted) (exit))
> 10) make requested changes
> 11) git commit, git push, goto 9
>
> Compare that to what it looks like in, e.g., Perl
>
> 1) Notice a thing you would like to change (a typo fix, add an example,
> etc)
> 2) got to CPAN and search for the package / tutorial / etc.  clicking on
> the name of the package gets you a listing of all files in the package (cf
> https://metacpan.org/release/ETHER/Moose-2.2012)
> 3) click on the 'Package::Name::Contributing' file and do what it says.
> This will probably be similar to the Racket workflow except that:
>
> a) The complete details are spelled out.
> b) There is a link directly to the repository
> c) The location of the file you need to edit is obvious from the URL of
> the documentation page that you're changing
> d) The file contains the complete text of the page so it's easier to find
> and easier to verify that your edits were correct
> e) The file is in POD, which is so simple that you can generally learn
> what you need just from glancing at the file, and it's easier to read than
> Scribble.  It's simple enough that you generally don't need to rebuild it
> to HTML, but if you choose to then you can easily rebuild just that page.
>
> Example of a Contributing file:
> https://metacpan.org/pod/release/ETHER/Moose-2.2012/lib/Moose/Manual/Contributing.pod
>
>   (NB:  All major Perl packages have a Contributing file and the 'create a
> package' tool for generating Perl modules creates a stub version for you so
> it's hard to forget.  If the author somehow *does* forget and the package
> doesn't have its own Contributing file then CPAN will show you a default
> version that contains all critical information.  Also, it's easy to find
> the Contributing file:  Go to the package listing that's available directly
> on CPAN and Ctrl+F for "Contributing")
>
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 3, 2019 at 5:26 PM James Platt <j...@biomantica.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Nov 25, 2019, at 1:29 PM, Stephen De Gabrielle wrote:
>>
>> > Many packages contain an /examples folder, and adding examples is an
>> easy way to contribute.
>>
>> I did not know that.  So, I guess the strategy is to find the git
>> repository for the package and look there?  In any case, I haven't been
>> finding these examples with a general web search.
>>
>> >
>> > There is also https://github.com/racket/racket/wiki/Artifacts
>> >
>> >> This page captures useful code snippets that are too small to be a
>> package.
>> >>
>> >> Please contribute your own!
>> >
>> > Though these might be better places in documentation, or in /examples
>>
>> That artifacts wiki a good thing to know about.  Most of these are a
>> little more complex than I am thinking are good for documentation but I may
>> well contribute some small but useful code.  I sometimes create my own
>> examples as I go because I often look back through my own code to refresh
>> my memory on how to do something.
>>
>> --
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>> .
>>
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-- 
Abraço,
Wanderley Guimarães

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