On Fri, Sep 19, 2003 at 09:06:33AM +0200, Xavier Noria wrote:
> I might find the time to document something, where is the CVS? Do you
> document libraries under lib/ or maybe they have their own maintainers?
> (WEBrick comes to mind). Are there any guidelines for contributors?
Xavier,
Hi! It'd be great if you were able to help out. We're
making real progress, but they's still lots to do! Once
we've finished the whole stdlib, and (alongside other uses)
newby or experimental Ruby programmers can go to a single
website and see all of the Ruby standard library clearly
documented and explained, that will be a great resource for
them and a great asset for Ruby, and it'll feel good to have
been part of making that happen! It's also a great way to
familiarise yourself with the standard library, and with
Ruby programming conventions and techniques.
In addition to Gavin's directions, some remarks from my own
experience:
1. Yes, many of the stdlib files are also maintained
separately as standalone libraries. Two that I've done that
are like this are dRuby and the Date library. What I've
been doing is to mail these maintainers to let them know
when I've written or converted documentation for their
libraries, and suggest they might like to incorporate this
into their standalone versions.
2. Even those stdlib files that are not also part of
standalone libraries generally have a (code) maintainer. If
it's not clear who this is, check the history of cvs
checkins at http://www.ruby-lang.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/ruby/lib.
As a courtesy, I always email the code maintainer to let
them know when I've RDoc'ed one of their files; often,
they've been kind enough to review and extend my RDoc, and
update the documentation for other files they maintain.
3. Make sure you get the CVS version of the rdoc program
itself, and keep it up to date. This is available from
rdoc.sourceforge.net. The standard library documentation
project is one of the main users of rdoc, and we generate a
lot of change requests for the program, which Dave Thomas
(the maintainer) is remarkably quick at satisfying.
I very much hope you are able to contribute to the project!
Regards,
William
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