Re: [Chicken-users] ideas

[Perry E. Metzger]

Peter Keller <address@hidden> writes:
> > > Perhaps we need to make the chicken webpages bigger than a single
> > > page? :-) A page listing "ongoing projects" and "requests for
> > > implementation" (as it were) might be handy...
> 
> I've been wondering about this. In addition, if this change happens, we
> should have a "known uses" section where people who write applications
> in chicken should get an entry with a little snippet about what the
> application is.  That way, prospective chicken users will see that it is
> being used for real systems(that might be similar to what they want to
> do, making them think that using chicken would be a good solution for
> them since it maps from the problem domain they have) and therefore
> has been beat on for a while and most of the serious bugs shaken out.

Perhaps a wiki? (Or should it be a "Chicki").

Having the mail archives linked to off of the main web site might be
nice -- that would make it easier to find them.

A /. style news website would ultimately be cool, too, but that's a
while off.

For now, I must admit I'm having a few problems, most of which better
documentation might fix. I don't quite understand the foreign function
interface, for example, which frustrates trying to play with things
other people have done. Documentation would be a help. (I find
frequently that the existing document often has what I want but that
it is a bit hard to find things in it... What is used to build
manual.html anyway?)

I've also had some weird problems with building. chicken-config and
csc come out in the bin directory as things that are neither
executables nor anything else -- file(1) cryptically calls them
"data". My own fault largely for not understanding more of how the
build process works -- I'll have to go in and debug it. I don't know
how many other people are hacking Chicken on NetBSD at the moment so I
may be on my own there for now.

But, to emphasize above all else: Documentation, documentation,
documentation. The easier it is for people to learn how to do things,
the faster they'll "come on board"...

Perry