RE: Wishlists and Modules (was [ANN] libmc)

["John Hind" <john.hind@...>]

Having now looked at the MurgaLua site - and been impressed by the ambition,
particularly the multi-platform GUI approach. However it does exemplify the
other big problem with modular code re-use particularly in the open source
area - discoverability. I'm not getting at John Murga in particular, this is
a problem I've noticed at lots of project sites. It is very common for the
home page for a project to be a version history - this may be fine for
returning visitors who are already invested, but it is hopeless for
discoverability!

The home page for a software project needs to clearly provide the following
minimum information:

1. What is the project *for*: what is its mission, its ambition?
2. What stage is the project at, when was the latest release and how far
along the mission line is it?
3. What platforms does the project target? What other dependencies does it
have?
4. What is the licence? Is it open source, freeware, if paid for, how much?
5. If open-source, what development platform, language and toolchain is
used/supported?

I would estimate that on average it takes at least ten minutes per project
to gather this essential information just to decide if the project meets
your current need. It is just amazing how often I've hunted a full website
and am still left having to deduce from indirect clues which major platform
the project is for!

Lua itself does reasonably well on this checklist if you know to follow the
"about" link on the home page, but I still think it would be good to have a
basic mission statement on the home page so new users can quickly see if it
is for them or not, something like:

"Lua is a mature, open source, compact scripting language implemented in
pure ANSI C to build and run on virtually any platform. It can be easily
embedded in applications as an extension and configuration language. [more]"

With [more] being a link to the "about" page.

Sorry about the rant, but this is directly pertinent to the topic of what it
takes in documentation terms to make practical code re-use feasible.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: lua-bounces@bazar2.conectiva.com.br [mailto:lua-
> bounces@bazar2.conectiva.com.br] On Behalf Of steve donovan
> Sent: 04 September 2009 07:02
> To: Lua list
> Subject: Re: Wishlists and Modules (was [ANN] libmc)
> 
> On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 1:22 AM, Andre de
> Leiradella<aleirade@sct.microlink.com.br> wrote:
> > And even after reading your message, I still don't know how to
> statically
> > compile LuaSocket (for example) into an application, with all its Lua
> files
> > also included in the application in order to avoid dependencies
> outside the
> > executable.
> 
> How about looking at how John Murga does it with MurgaLua?
> 
> http://www.murga-projects.com/murgaLua/
> 
> One executable, just about everything
> 
> steve d.