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On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 11:42 AM, Karen Coyle <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Shaun, you cannot decide whether github is a barrier to entry FOR ME (or
> anyone else), any more than you can decide whether or not my foot hurts.
> I'm telling you github is NOT what I want to use. Period.
>
> I'm actually thinking that a blog format would be nice. It could be pretty
> (poetry and beauty go together). Poems tend to be short, so they'd make a
> nice blog post. They could appear in the Planet blog roll. They could be
> coded by author and topic. There could be comments! Even poems as comments!
> The only down-side is managing users. Anyone have ideas on that?
>
> kc
>
>
>
> On 2/20/13 8:20 AM, Shaun Ellis wrote:
>
>> > (As a general rule, for every programmer who prefers tool A, and says
>> > that everybody should use it, there’s a programmer who disparages tool
>> > A, and advocates tool B. So take what we say with a grain of salt!)
>>
>> It doesn't matter what tools you use, as long as you and your team are
>> able to participate easily, if you want to.  But if you want to attract
>>  contributions from a given development community, then choices should be
>> balanced between the preferences of that community and what best serve the
>> project.
>>
>> From what I've been hearing, I think there is a lot of confusion about
>> GitHub.  Heck, I am constantly learning about new GitHub features, APIs,
>> and best practices myself. But I find it to be an incredibly powerful
>> platform for moving open source, distributed software development forward.
>>  I am not telling anyone to use GitHub if they don't want to, but I want to
>> dispel a few myths I've heard recently:
>>
>> ------------
>>
>> * Myth #1 : GitHub creates a barrier to entry.
>> * "To contribute to a project on GitHub, you need to use the
>> command-line. It's not for non-coders."
>>
>> GitHub != git.  While GitHub was initially built for publishing and
>> sharing code via integration with git, all GitHub functionality can be
>> performed directly through the web gui.  In fact, GitHub can even be used
>> as your sole coding environment. There are other tools in the "eco-system"
>> that allow non-coders to contribute documentation, issue reporting, and
>> more to a project.
>>
>> ------------
>>
>> * Myth #2 : GitHub is for sharing/publishing code.
>> * "I would be fun to have a wiki for more durable poetry (github
>> unfortunately would be a barrier to many)."
>>
>> GitHub can be used to collaborate on and publish other types of content
>> as well.  For example, GitHub has a great wiki component* (as well as a
>> website component).  In a number of ways, has less of a "barrier to entry"
>> than our Code4Lib wiki.
>>
>> While the path of least resistance requires a "repository" to have a
>> wiki, public repos cost nothing and can consist of a simple "README" file.
>>  The wiki can be locked down to a team, or it can be writable by anyone
>> with a github account.  You don't need to do anything via command-line,
>> don't need to understand "git-flow", and you don't even need to learn wiki
>> markup to write content. All you need is an account and something to say,
>> just like any wiki. Log in, go to the anti-harassment policy wiki, and see
>> for yourself:
>> https://github.com/code4lib/**antiharassment-policy/wiki<https://github.com/code4lib/antiharassment-policy/wiki>
>>
>> * The github wiki even has an API (via Gollum) that you can use to
>> retrieve raw or formatted wiki content, write new content, and collect
>> various meta data about the wiki as a whole:
>> https://github.com/code4lib/**antiharassment-policy/wiki/_**access<https://github.com/code4lib/antiharassment-policy/wiki/_access>
>>
>> ------------
>>
>> * Myth #3 : GitHub is person-centric.
>> > "(And as a further aside, there’s plenty to dislike about github as
>> > well, from it’s person-centric view of projects (rather than
>> > team-centric)..."
>>
>> Untrue. GitHub is very team centered when using organizational accounts,
>> which formalize authorization controls for projects, among other things:
>> https://github.com/blog/674-**introducing-organizations<https://github.com/blog/674-introducing-organizations>
>>
>> ------------
>>
>> * Myth #4 : GitHub is monopolizing open source software development.
>> > "... to its unfortunate centralizing of so much free/open
>> > source software on one platform.)"
>>
>> Convergence is not always a bad thing. GitHub provides a great, free
>> service with lots of helpful collaboration tools beyond version control.
>>  It's natural that people would flock there, despite having lots of other
>> options.
>>
>> ------------
>>
>> -Shaun
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2/19/13 5:35 PM, Erik Hetzner wrote:
>>
>>> At Sat, 16 Feb 2013 06:42:04 -0800,
>>> Karen Coyle wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> gitHub may have excellent startup documentation, but that startup
>>>> documentation describes git in programming terms mainly using *nx
>>>> commands. If you have never had to use a version control system (e.g. if
>>>> you do not write code, especially in a shared environment), "clone"
>>>> "push" "pull" are very poorly described. The documentation is all in
>>>> terms of *nx commands. Honestly, anything where this is in the
>>>> documentation:
>>>>
>>>> On Windows systems, Git looks for the |.gitconfig| file in the |$HOME|
>>>> directory (|%USERPROFILE%| in Windows’ environment), which is
>>>> |C:\Documents and Settings\$USER| or |C:\Users\$USER| for most people,
>>>> depending on version (|$USER| is |%USERNAME%| in Windows’ environment).
>>>>
>>>> is not going to work for anyone who doesn't work in Windows at the
>>>> command line.
>>>>
>>>> No, git is NOT for non-coders.
>>>>
>>>
>>> For what it’s worth, this programmer finds git’s interface pretty
>>> terrible. I prefer mercurial (hg), but I don’t know if it’s any better
>>> for people who aren’t familar with a command line.
>>>
>>>    http://mercurial.selenic.com/**guide/<http://mercurial.selenic.com/guide/>
>>>
>>> (As a general rule, for every programmer who prefers tool A, and says
>>> that everybody should use it, there’s a programmer who disparages tool
>>> A, and advocates tool B. So take what we say with a grain of salt!)
>>>
>>> (And as a further aside, there’s plenty to dislike about github as
>>> well, from it’s person-centric view of projects (rather than
>>> team-centric) to its unfortunate centralizing of so much free/open
>>> source software on one platform.)
>>>
>>> best, Erik
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent from my free software system <http://fsf.org/>.
>>>
>>>
> --
> Karen Coyle
> [log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net
> ph: 1-510-540-7596
> m: 1-510-435-8234
> skype: kcoylenet
>