On Friday, 7 November 2014 at 14:33:09 UTC, Laeeth Isharc wrote:
What I should so is volunteer to help, but at this moment I
simply don't have the capacity (on the resource front I hope
that
may change in time). I would very much like to, though.
Gathering together multiple binaries for multiple platforms for
every library to which Derelict binds and then keeping them up to
date would be a fairly time-intensive effort unless it could be
completely automated. Like I told the OP, in the 10 years I've
been maintaining Derelict this hasn't been a source of complaint
until now. Given how tiny the problem is in relation to the
amount of effort required to solve it, I think there are better
ways to use your time in helping D.
Besides, some of the bound libraries are commonly installed on
many systems already and others make binaries available for
multiple platforms. Only a few of them require compilation. The
package that started this whole discussion is a bit of an anomaly
right now in the Derelict universe, because it's implemented
against a moving target rather than a stable release (simply
because there are no stable releases of Bgfx). Perhaps the
included examples contributed to the problem as well (no other
Derelict package includes examples), which I can see giving an
impression that DerelictBgfx is something more than it is. The
README also fell out of sync with the other packages.
As I see it, the solution is to remove the examples from
DerelictBgfx, enhance the READMEs in every package and finish the
docs. As long as users have clear instructions in the docs that
they need to obtain the binaries themselves, I don't believe more
need be done. Of course, I can't make them read the docs, which
btw is something they would still need to do if you or someone
else hosted all those binaries, else they wouldn't know where to
find them.
There was some discussion previously by Andrei and Walter in
another thread about how people could help. Do you think it
makes sense to have a link on front page of dlang saying "how
you
can help dlang grow" And then have a list of strategic
projects,
and a list of tactical tasks.
Discussion along those lines has come up now and again. There may
be something over at the Wiki. Personally, I'm happy to do my bit
by keeping Derelict alive and in semi-decent health and writing
an occasional blog post when the mood strikes. I'll leave ideas
about how to manage dlang contributions to others.
That said, I would like to see someone at some point step up to
serve as a sort of Community Manager (or Lieutenant as Andrei
would say), someone who would keep a list of key areas where D
and and its satellite projects need help, tracking progress and
updating the list as necessary. Without someone actively
overseeing such a list, it's just going to stagnate (especially
if it's on the dlang front page, but also on the Wiki).
