Coders & Non-coders

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This is a response to a post a member has written on G+, referring to the perceived “coder-ness” of this forum. It’s still early days, so let’s summarize;

~

When this forum started the topics were all “how do i …?” and “where’s this going?” and “what’s what?!?” and other beginner queries.

After a month or two the topics are much more “here’s my first app, plz try it, thx!” and many more technical questions from app makers who are by now getting deeply involved.

[ Woot! You are HERE! ]

Now we’re heading into the first collaborations, with more “coder-speak”, language specific acronyms, and squirrely red-arrow screenshots.

During the next month or so, coders will know who’s who, and their first “real” apps will become more collaborative, and will most likely start to fulfill the role of a usable forum, but based on Solid in typical dog-fooding fashion.

At that point the level of coders and technical jargon posted here will slowly decrease, since most of the early questions will have already been answered, and new questions subsequently being answered p2p or elsewhere (on github/gitlab/repl.it/etc) between coders.

Any new coders arriving at that point will likely seek out these first Solid-based collaborative apps or coding sites where other coders are hanging out together.

Coders will also be returning here to ask non-coders to bug test their latest apps. (at the moment we’re just happy to have other coders test our first apps, but general use by the public is our actual goal)

At that point you will find coders and UX ppl being very patient and helpful and understanding, and crazy keen to hear all or any feedback and suggestions you might have, and desperate to please. (ok, not all, but mostly) :wink:

Then an app store will open and reviews will be another source of interaction between coders and end-users. The land of apps has arrived!

This is the rough life-cycle of a new forum about a new platform with new apps and it’s usual growing pains.

~

To any non-coders; Thanks for your understanding!

(…have i missed anything?)

Cheers.

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You are a visionner ! Or a good observer !
So what can we do to guide new soliders ?
A point if what has been done today:
( Add your ideas, i will make a public HTML page on my public POD :blush:, that i Can share for those who want to édit)

what is SOLID

what is a POD

how to create a POD

how to interact with

apps to test / git / status / how to use

other ideas

technical tools

  • rdflibjs
  • solid-auth-client
  • solid-file-client
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Hi,

I’m one of those non-coders. Well, I do know how to get the gist when reading code and I did write my fair share of shell scripts and VBA code, but I’m very firmly not a coder. I do Product Management now.

And that’s the sort of contribution and questions I’ll keep throwing at you: How do certain things work for end users, what is the nomenclature presented to the world, how can I understand all of this?

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Your proposal is a WIKI.
I have begun one on mediawiki but I think it’s too heavy.
Why not use a DOKIELI document ?
The app is available on all Solid pods and is collaborative with revisions and notes.

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@bourgeoa :+1:good point. Dokieli !
So first app : Dokieli…
but i can’t :
using this page https://dokie.li/, login, new , path = https://smag0.solid.community/public/Solid/start , create and it gives me :

Screenshot_2018-12-10%20public
Screenshot_2018-12-10%20public1908×1076 99.2 KB

any Dokieli expert ?

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@Smag0 Ha! It’s not my first rodeo as they say. :yum:

Also started an awesome list aimed at no-one in particular.

(…added Chess, Spoggy & Jeff’s latest tool)

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Wonderful list! Thank you for putting all these together!

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@TheodoraPetkova Your article is pretty much the signpost at the intersection of users and coders.
A good read! :+1:

edit: (found typo) “threads and strings as hey are” (they)
… :thinking:
… “a resource of access it” (to access it)
… “It also make us ponder” (makes)
… “… is to still to happen.” (… will continue.)
… “that it [Solid is not done yet]” (that [Solid is not done yet])

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I am not an expert but what you have to do :

  • with the green + button create a dokieli document the big “d”
  • name your dokieli document
    it’s done

A basic dokieli document consist of a folder : /index.html
The document folder contains all versions revisions and so on.
To access the document you use the URI of the ressource

You can share it from inside the document ou make edit the document status edit/write from all or some WebID from inside your Pod

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unit and end-to-end testing minimizes the need to be " desperate to please" :slight_smile:

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For now ok, i made the first file https://smag0.solid.community/public/Solid/first.html
Now , how to share to everyone ?

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Loading failed for the <script> with source “https://dokie.li/scripts/simplerdf.js”. first.html:11:1

Loading failed for the <script> with source “https://dokie.li/scripts/medium-editor.min.js”. first.html:12:1

Loading failed for the <script> with source “https://dokie.li/scripts/medium-editor-tables.min.js”. first.html:13:1

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Let me guess…

image
image961×149 35.5 KB

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@dredd, very interesting observations and that is an awesome awesome list, thanks! In line with this discussion, I’m thinking about your list of software. It is similar to the way I think about the apps and projects, but maybe that’s not how we should be thinking. Perhaps there should be general sections 1) resources for end-users (e.g. chess) 2) resources for POD maintainers (e.g. profile viewer) 3) resources for software developers (e.g. rdflib). Of course there would be multiple-target apps and we could get into a whole ontology of software discussion, which isn’t my goal. More, to recognize that many kinds of people will be engaging with Solid in various ways and to recognize differences between those who want to play chess, those who want to use Solid as cloud storage, and those poor fools who want to develop Solid apps. Neither of the first two groups is necessarily interested in software dev tools or specs.

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To allow edit to everybody go in your pod go to the dokieli folder document and give editor’s rights to everybody or whatever your choice.

example document : https://alain.bourgeoa.ga/public/AwesomeSolid/

dokieli editor is not so easy for example the first level of indentation H1 has to be created as html code
I had some difficulty finding my way make a look like of your github page. I should have made a simple copy/paste. It seems to work

bourgeoa @bourgeoa 14:53 Sorry for numb question : I don’t know how to create/declare a section in my first document so as to begin an indentation ?
Sarven Capadisli @csarven 15:36 @bourgeoa Try this quickly: https://gitter.im/linkeddata/dokieli?at=5bff05ddcb32736b29ab2083)

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Thanks for the heads up! And for the typo check (blush) - I am still the Queen of typos after so many years of writing, especially when it comes to talking about things that I so much care about :slight_smile: Thanks again and Solid on. :slight_smile:

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ok @bourgeoa , your’s (https://alain.bourgeoa.ga/public/AwesomeSolid/) is cool, i can edit :+1:

I think @jeffz is a good idea and i’ve some french friends that are not aware in english would like to know a bit more of solid, could we think about internationalization in the same time ?

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@Smag0 Yes. Feel free to fork, edit, and translate as i have also done with Spoggy. (btw, i use a Chrome extension which uses GoogleTranslate by selecting the text to be translated, which then shows a pop-up on screen to copy & paste)

@jeffz suggestion is correct, and is in line with demarcating info for coders or end-users.
Planning to add a contents index soon as the list grows longer so that can also help to categorize for each type of user.

@filsmyth Yes, with the announcement that G+ will close in April 2019 instead of August then the need to accelerate the user apps creation just got way more intense. Luckily Christmas break might give people a little time to get their migration plan sorted. I think everyone is doing their best given the suddenness of these announcements. Couldn’t have imagined G+ closing in little over 100 days. Nothing more motivating than the prospect of years of posts getting swallowed by the approaching abyss. :sweat:

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The abbreviation plugin I recommended can be a good tool to help non-technical users on this forum, and the page you outlined here, can be added as a page link in the hamburger menu with the hamburger plugin. See: Some good plugins for this forum