A few thoughts on microrb

thoughts_on_microrb.md

Hi microrbes,

I gave the issue of "what would you like from microrb" a few thoughts that I'd like to write down here:

I find "building a collection" important, but that is one curated task for one or two persons. Still, I think this is selling the concept short.

I think there are a few things holding people off from using microlibraries:

1. Inconsistent or lack documentation

2. Maintainership problems

• Most libs have one maintainer
• This one could drop out anytime
• Unclear release status (the 0.0.2-syndrom)

3. Assembly work

All these could be fixed by making the organization a proper organization aimed to handle those.

This could, for example, work through a form of curation: we can encourage gem owners to get in contact with us and get a special label. That label could come with:

1. A quick check whether the docs are okay and whether the lib has examples.

2. Assist the maintainers:

• Check whether the lib has CI.
• Send notices to maintainers on major version changes. (1.9.3 -> 2.0.0) to check their libs.
• A regular check that the lib is still maintained (issue number, maintainer reaction, possibly a mail to the person)
• If not, we could assist in finding a new maintainer

3. is a bit odd, it can basically be fixed by blogging and talking to people ;).

Just a quick writeup, any comments?

Regards, Florian

So pretty much: act as an organization of backup maintainers for libraries we think are worth it and align with the ideas presented in whatever "microrb manifesto" we come up with - probably based on what @plexus drafted a few days ago.

I'm up for it, it'd mean actively supporting and helping out project that deserve it, it's too common to see hackathons and community building around Rails and others, not so much with smaller libs.

I think we could be on the right track, I hope we can build a community around all this, count me in :)

I agree. Having a whole community helping out in maintaing those libs should help significantly. It's one thing to hack together a lib on a saturday afternoon and another to maintain it and keep it in a good shape. I'm not even mentioning how hard it is to have good, up-to-date docs.

I have to admit I like the idea of curating things. Do you think encouraging people to move their stuff to microrb org would be a good idea?

I think access to the microrb org could be a good carrot, together with setting those expectations.

Hard documentation: yep, I think documentation is the next topic the software community should tackle.

Poking my head in to say I like where this is going. The issues that @skade laid out are all very real and growing a community around a shared goal to deal with those issues would be great. "Many hands makes light work."