An offer to any haskell projects out there.

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Reflective capabilities of Haskell...

michael＠schmong.org

11 Mar 2008 11 Mar '08

6:46 p.m.

Hello, My name is Michael Litchard. I'm a techie living in silicon valley, and I want to move into tech writing. I've got the background, now I need a portfolio. I figured the best way to go is to attach myself to some open source projects, and haskell has had my heart for a few years now. I am by no means an expert at haskell. My expertise is writing. So I make this offer. If you need documentation written for your haskell project, I'm your man. Whatever it is, I'll write it or edit it. Thanks for your time. P.S If this was the wrong list, or if anyone has other ideas about how to propogate my proposal, please let me know. Michael

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Don Stewart

12 Mar 12 Mar

4:59 p.m.

michael:

...

Hello, My name is Michael Litchard. I'm a techie living in silicon valley, and I want to move into tech writing. I've got the background, now I need a portfolio. I figured the best way to go is to attach myself to some open source projects, and haskell has had my heart for a few years now. I am by no means an expert at haskell. My expertise is writing. So I make this offer. If you need documentation written for your haskell project, I'm your man. Whatever it is, I'll write it or edit it. Thanks for your time.

P.S If this was the wrong list, or if anyone has other ideas about how to propogate my proposal, please let me know.

Michael

Michael, Thanks for your offer! One of the best things you could do would be to submit patches against the core library set where documentation is missing. Starting with things in base, array, containers, directory, filepath, pretty, time etc. That would likely help the largest number of users. Patches to these libraries can be submitted to the libraries@haskell.org list. Cheers, Don

Tim Chevalier

6:47 p.m.

On 3/12/08, Don Stewart wrote:

...

One of the best things you could do would be to submit patches against the core library set where documentation is missing. Starting with things in base, array, containers, directory, filepath, pretty, time etc.

That would likely help the largest number of users.

Patches to these libraries can be submitted to the libraries@haskell.org list.

To elaborate ever so slightly on what Don said: A lot of libraries only have type signatures for functions in the libraries as "documentation". What's missing is English descriptions of what the functions really do. You yourself may not know what the functions do, but you can learn by experimenting with the libraries (writing little programs that use the functions) and by asking on this mailing list (and reading old posts in the archive), if necessary. It would be really useful if you decided to put time into this. Thanks in advance! Cheers, Tim -- Tim Chevalier * http://cs.pdx.edu/~tjc * Often in error, never in doubt "You never have to aspire to difficulty, darling. It arrives, uninvited. Then it stays for dinner."--Sue Miller

Benjamin L. Russell

13 Mar 13 Mar

3:49 a.m.

I am also interested in helping out in this manner, particularly with HaskellWiki. I work as a patent translator in Tokyo, and my specialty is technical translation. In particular, I could help write English-language documentation on Haskell and also translate such documentation into Japanese for Japanese readers in my spare time. Although I took a course in formal semantics in college (under Paul Hudak at Yale, actually) many years ago and studied some beginning Haskell at that time, I haven't had much time to study Haskell since then, and am still a beginner at the language. However, I've been able to set aside some time to study Haskell formally recently, and should be able to help out soon. If anybody is interested in setting up a Japanese-language version of HaskellWiki, please let me know. Haskell is starting to become well-known here in Japan, and there are even two Japanese-language textbooks on Haskell sold in Japanese bookstore. What is probably needed is more online Japanese-language documentation. Benjamin L. Russell --- Tim Chevalier wrote:

...

...
One of the best things you could do would be to submit patches against the core library set where documentation is missing. Starting with things in base, array, containers,

...
time etc.

That would likely help the largest number of users.

Patches to these libraries can be submitted to

On 3/12/08, Don Stewart wrote: directory, filepath, pretty, the libraries@haskell.org

...
list.

To elaborate ever so slightly on what Don said: A lot of libraries only have type signatures for functions in the libraries as "documentation". What's missing is English descriptions of what the functions really do. You yourself may not know what the functions do, but you can learn by experimenting with the libraries (writing little programs that use the functions) and by asking on this mailing list (and reading old posts in the archive), if necessary.

It would be really useful if you decided to put time into this. Thanks in advance!

Cheers, Tim

-- Tim Chevalier * http://cs.pdx.edu/~tjc * Often in error, never in doubt "You never have to aspire to difficulty, darling. It arrives, uninvited. Then it stays for dinner."--Sue Miller _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe

Bjorn Buckwalter

2:22 a.m.

writes:

...

Hello, My name is Michael Litchard. I'm a techie living in silicon valley, and I want to move into tech writing. I've got the background, now I need a portfolio. I figured the best way to go is to attach myself to some open source projects, and haskell has had my heart for a few years now. I am by no means an expert at haskell. My expertise is writing. So I make this offer. If you need documentation written for your haskell project, I'm your man. Whatever it is, I'll write it or edit it. Thanks for your time.

P.S If this was the wrong list, or if anyone has other ideas about how to propogate my proposal, please let me know.

Michael

Michael, that's an awesome offer. As others have already noted there are plenty of areas where you could make a significant contribution. I'd specifically recommend reposting your offer to the HAppS (http://happs.org) list/group. HAppS is a high profile project which seems to be getting quite a bit of interest from outside the Haskell community. If you're unfamiliar with it I recommend taking a look at the "BayFP Presentation" linked on the site. Unfortunately HAppS has a serious deficit of documentation (including the web site not being up to date) and consequently there is a high barrier to entry. While HAppS could certainly benefit from you help I would imagine that you could also benefit from helping HAppS. The high profile of HAppS should increase the chance of prospective clients being able to relate to your portfolio, and I'd also imagine that comprehensive documentation focused on a specific project is more "portfoliable" than random pieces scattered around the standard libraries (not that I want to disuade you from contributing there too!). Good luck! -Bjorn (I'm not involved in the HAppS project, nor have I used it.)

Hans van Thiel

8:07 a.m.

On Tue, 2008-03-11 at 18:46 -0400, michael@schmong.org wrote:

...

Hello, My name is Michael Litchard. I'm a techie living in silicon valley, and I want to move into tech writing. I've got the background, now I need a portfolio. I figured the best way to go is to attach myself to some open source projects, and haskell has had my heart for a few years now. I am by no means an expert at haskell. My expertise is writing. So I make this offer. If you need documentation written for your haskell project, I'm your man. Whatever it is, I'll write it or edit it. Thanks for your time.

P.S If this was the wrong list, or if anyone has other ideas about how to propogate my proposal, please let me know.

Michael Hello Michael,

I agree that improving the docs for (some) standard libraries would be the most helpful. However, specializing in a special project would probably be better, if it's a visible portfolio you want. Have you thought of writing a tutorial on one of the HackageDB libraries, for example,database connectivity, XML processing, or even Cabal itself? That would be useful, and give you a clear cut deliverable too. http://www.gordonandgordon.com/aboutus.html is a web site with some good info on technical writing, and the differences between sdk documentation, white papers and technical marketing. All of which would be useful to the Haskell community, IMO, but that's a personal view. Best Regards, Hans van Thiel

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participants (6)

Benjamin L. Russell
Bjorn Buckwalter
Don Stewart
Hans van Thiel
michael＠schmong.org
Tim Chevalier