From: Curt Hibbs <curt@...>
Date: 2005-01-25T13:44:21+09:00
Subject: Re: Best ways to accelerate Ruby's popularity

Ben Giddings wrote:
>
> I think, at the very least, the home page for a language should have
> things like:
> [X] An "about" page
> [X] A download area
> [ ] Installation guides / instructions
> [ ] An introduction to the language / beginner's guide
> [ ] C API / interfacing with other languages guide
> [ ] API documentation
> [ ] Standard library documentation
> [ ] FAQ
> [X] Mailing lists
> [ ] Bugs
> [X] Announcements
>
> The [X] marks things that are hosted and clearly findable on the
> ruby-lang.org site, the [ ] marks things that aren't.
>
> Much of this stuff exists, but it's not at ruby-lang.org, and even
> though ruby-lang.org might link to it, the lack of consistent style
> doubtless makes new users somewhat suspicious about how
> authoritative it is.

[snip]

> Maybe all it would take is that the maintainers of the English language
> site bring some of the existing things over to the official site.  Some
> things should really be there, and wouldn't be too hard to move over,
> like the core language API docs.  Other stuff might still need to be
> written.  I don't know.  I just think that there isn't enough stuff on
> ruby-lang.org to convince a wary newcomer that they have indeed found
> the official Ruby homepage, and that it is a mature language, in active
> development, with lots of users, and with lots of real-world uses.

Yes, yes, yes... I couldn't agree more!

But, this isn't going to happen without someone willing "champion the
cause".

Curt