What to choose - Kavaynost, Robosity or Sociality?
Today I want to talk about the future of the service AllMyChanges.com . For those who hears about it for the first time, I will explain, this is such a service for subscribing to the release of new versions of libraries, software and anything that has a version number and its description. More details can be read in previous articles .
This service has been around for quite a long time, but since it is being developed thanks only to the founder’s perseverance and without any external injections, then for successful growth it is necessary to focus on really important things.
I see at least three areas of service development and I propose to discuss them in detail, as well as to vote which of the directions to be engaged in first and foremost. Thus, today you get a unique chance to influence the development of this startup, help crystallize the main ideas and decide on the direction of development.
')
So, as already mentioned, I see three directions of development. Let's look at the first.
Many users tell me, and not without reason, that the service could have been prettier or more comfortable. In this case, as a rule, nod in the direction of competitors, such as Sibbel , advised to take Bootstrap and the like.
No one, however, does not go down to the details and such comments, as a rule, are not constructive, and therefore end in nothing.
I understand perfectly well that the service lacks fashionable glamor. But on the other hand, it performs its functions perfectly - it parses the changelogs and sends notifications about new releases. Undoubtedly, much more can be done in terms of UI and UX. But until a properly motivated interface developer joins the project, this is unlikely to happen.
For me, interface design means, first of all, not pointing glamorous gloss, but working out the mechanisms of user interaction with the service. Improvements in this place may not even make the service more beautiful, but at the same time it will become more convenient, it will be better to tell people about its capabilities and thus will be more valuable to them.
In short, the direction would be renamed to "Understandable", and no longer engage in graphic design, but in the convenience of using interfaces.
Hereinafter, roboticity refers to a certain degree of automation that facilitates the use of the service and reduces the threshold of entry. One of the main problems now is that AllMyChanges offers to subscribe to libraries and software, and this has to be done manually. It would be nice if robots did this for us, right?
Of course, there is an API and a number of utilities to automate the process, but only a few use them. If you embed automation in the service itself, before this functionality will be more convenient. However, in many respects, the manual addition of libraries to the service database is due to the fact that it is not always
it is possible to automatically determine the place where the sources are located. And information about the repository is simply necessary in order to find and parse the ChangeLog.
It is for this reason that none of the so-called "competitors", neither VersionEye nor Gemnasium , provide information about the changes. All they do is monitor the appearance of new versions on PyPi, Ruby Gems, and similar public package repositories.
To extract more information, you need to know where it comes from. And often only a person can provide this information. Hence all the difficulties.
But I'm sure you can do better.
Another feature that everyone is asking for, also related to adding packages, is parsing files such as requirements.txt, Gemfile.lock, and so on. However, this is not such a simple matter as it seems. All files with dependencies have their own format, they all need to expand the list of dependencies in different ways. And most importantly - all this is already doing quite well VersionEye and Gemnasium. What they don’t do is don’t give information about what changes updating dependencies brings.
So why, instead of repeating the functionality already implemented by other services, not to start making friends with them and extract from this friendship a synergistic effect? They parse well and keep track of dependencies, AllMyChanges is good at parsing release notes, so the combination of tools will give you a complete picture of what is happening in a particular project.
Therefore, “robotics” implies a friendship between AllMyChanges and other services, such as Gemnasium, VersionEye, GitHub, when they provide information about the modules and packages used in your projects.
And then there are many possible implementation options, I propose to discuss them in the comments.
The next, and rather obvious, direction where one can develop is the addition of a social component. Now everything goes to the social network. Even GitHub is no longer just a hosting for Git repositories, but a social network where they communicate in code comments, subscribe to each other and like different projects.
I have long been carrying this idea. The easiest thing, probably, is to screw Disqus comments on each version, to enable users to leave notes for other users. But at the same time, this is also the most limited option, as it leaves aside many of the things that can be implemented to work together on release laptops.
For example, you can enable the manual layout of new versions, as critical, backward incompatible; comments to a specific phrase; maybe something else.
And of course, we need user profiles with avatars, likes, following and that's it.
While I do not have a clear understanding of how it should or can work. So I really hope that you now come across in the comments and share your thoughts.
I have listed three possible directions for the development of a service for tracking release laptops:
It may well be that I missed something important. Do not hesitate to leave comments, your opinion may affect the fate of the service.
I will not yet share my own thoughts on the priorities of the above areas, and now I suggest you vote for one of them, which you think is the most important. Important for the service to bring you personally real benefit.
Thanks in advance for all your comments and votes.
This service has been around for quite a long time, but since it is being developed thanks only to the founder’s perseverance and without any external injections, then for successful growth it is necessary to focus on really important things.
I see at least three areas of service development and I propose to discuss them in detail, as well as to vote which of the directions to be engaged in first and foremost. Thus, today you get a unique chance to influence the development of this startup, help crystallize the main ideas and decide on the direction of development.
')
So, as already mentioned, I see three directions of development. Let's look at the first.
Kavaynost
Many users tell me, and not without reason, that the service could have been prettier or more comfortable. In this case, as a rule, nod in the direction of competitors, such as Sibbel , advised to take Bootstrap and the like.
No one, however, does not go down to the details and such comments, as a rule, are not constructive, and therefore end in nothing.
I understand perfectly well that the service lacks fashionable glamor. But on the other hand, it performs its functions perfectly - it parses the changelogs and sends notifications about new releases. Undoubtedly, much more can be done in terms of UI and UX. But until a properly motivated interface developer joins the project, this is unlikely to happen.
For me, interface design means, first of all, not pointing glamorous gloss, but working out the mechanisms of user interaction with the service. Improvements in this place may not even make the service more beautiful, but at the same time it will become more convenient, it will be better to tell people about its capabilities and thus will be more valuable to them.
In short, the direction would be renamed to "Understandable", and no longer engage in graphic design, but in the convenience of using interfaces.
Robosity
Hereinafter, roboticity refers to a certain degree of automation that facilitates the use of the service and reduces the threshold of entry. One of the main problems now is that AllMyChanges offers to subscribe to libraries and software, and this has to be done manually. It would be nice if robots did this for us, right?
Of course, there is an API and a number of utilities to automate the process, but only a few use them. If you embed automation in the service itself, before this functionality will be more convenient. However, in many respects, the manual addition of libraries to the service database is due to the fact that it is not always
it is possible to automatically determine the place where the sources are located. And information about the repository is simply necessary in order to find and parse the ChangeLog.
It is for this reason that none of the so-called "competitors", neither VersionEye nor Gemnasium , provide information about the changes. All they do is monitor the appearance of new versions on PyPi, Ruby Gems, and similar public package repositories.
To extract more information, you need to know where it comes from. And often only a person can provide this information. Hence all the difficulties.
But I'm sure you can do better.
Another feature that everyone is asking for, also related to adding packages, is parsing files such as requirements.txt, Gemfile.lock, and so on. However, this is not such a simple matter as it seems. All files with dependencies have their own format, they all need to expand the list of dependencies in different ways. And most importantly - all this is already doing quite well VersionEye and Gemnasium. What they don’t do is don’t give information about what changes updating dependencies brings.
So why, instead of repeating the functionality already implemented by other services, not to start making friends with them and extract from this friendship a synergistic effect? They parse well and keep track of dependencies, AllMyChanges is good at parsing release notes, so the combination of tools will give you a complete picture of what is happening in a particular project.
Therefore, “robotics” implies a friendship between AllMyChanges and other services, such as Gemnasium, VersionEye, GitHub, when they provide information about the modules and packages used in your projects.
And then there are many possible implementation options, I propose to discuss them in the comments.
Sociality
The next, and rather obvious, direction where one can develop is the addition of a social component. Now everything goes to the social network. Even GitHub is no longer just a hosting for Git repositories, but a social network where they communicate in code comments, subscribe to each other and like different projects.
I have long been carrying this idea. The easiest thing, probably, is to screw Disqus comments on each version, to enable users to leave notes for other users. But at the same time, this is also the most limited option, as it leaves aside many of the things that can be implemented to work together on release laptops.
For example, you can enable the manual layout of new versions, as critical, backward incompatible; comments to a specific phrase; maybe something else.
And of course, we need user profiles with avatars, likes, following and that's it.
While I do not have a clear understanding of how it should or can work. So I really hope that you now come across in the comments and share your thoughts.
Total
I have listed three possible directions for the development of a service for tracking release laptops:
- user interface clarity;
- automation and integration with other services such as VersionEye;
- development of the social component.
It may well be that I missed something important. Do not hesitate to leave comments, your opinion may affect the fate of the service.
I will not yet share my own thoughts on the priorities of the above areas, and now I suggest you vote for one of them, which you think is the most important. Important for the service to bring you personally real benefit.
Thanks in advance for all your comments and votes.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/261875/
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