I beg you, if you are a developer of an open source app or program - add screenshots of your app to the README file. When looking for the perfect app, I had to install dozens of them just to see what the user interface looked like and whether it suits me. This will allow users to decide if the app they choose will suit them… Please, don’t think about it, just do it…
Sometimes I’d settled for a simple description of what the tool even is. Sometimes the readme is just straight into compilation steps and I feel like we’re rushing into something.
Foreplay is important! Gotta get me excited for that app.
🛠️ Building
To build the app install the
gametedependencies and run the followingmake child
A lot of documentation is like that.
Its terrible when the software is called some random word that has nothing to do with the programs functionality
I also hate it when it has a name that is a super common word or phrase. Our last 3 records management prograns at work have been like this, and their help fires are terrible to non existent. Good like trying to search the internet for information on the software with those common names. Even adding terms relevant to what the software does, didn’t help much.
(Apologies if this is terribly typed, I’ve got an impending migraine aura that stayed right as I hit reply and have lost a good chunk of my vision. I can’t see most of what I’m saying.)
Unrelated, but I used to get them often. I found one article about vitamin D deficiency as a potential cause, and figured, “what what hell”. Started taking 5000IU every day of the Swanson’s brand. It took a month or so, but I’ve been aura migraine free for months (still get migraines sometimes, but they’re MUCH less severe than they used to be and no auras). Ask your doctor first, in case you can’t take vitamin D, but it’s worth a try if it’s safe for you.
I actually know what causes most of mine, there are some nerves in my neck that get pinched/aggravated and trigger them. And for some reason, if I have multiple days in a row where I don’t get much sleep, those nerves get extra cranky. They are extra cranky right now.
I’m so so sorry! I guess, at lease, you know why. That’s something, right? Not really, but :shrug: seriously, I’m so sorry you’re going through that!
As a user, I completely agree. People often make decisions in a few seconds, and you’ve done all this work developing an app. That little extra step will allow you to make a difference to more people!
As a developer of a Lemmy web UI, I’ve been thinking about adding screenshots to my README for weeks but still haven’t done so 🙈
Get to it, mate! You can do it!
It’s easier said than done for sure
README is usually a text file. While some platforms can now use markdown, that is nowhere near universal. So it might be better to ask for screenshots to be put on the website / wiki.
GitHub and GitLab both support inserting images into your README.md. Here’s the syntax:
Just like obsidian.md
And anything that supports CommonMark. It’s even in the original Markdown
And Lemmy!
Not just a text file, a markdown file. And markdown has supported images since forever
README.txt will be a text file, README.md can be much more
While we’re at it, I love that you let me customize the settings via a config, but for the love of god make the default config the best it can possibly be
This. It should be the most sane configuration and fit most use cases and lead to an experience working out of the box.
I contribute to OS projects and work on one full time. EVERYBODY thinks that their obscure use case is the most common (not saying this is what you are doing).
We get users that are completely flabbergasted that our software doesn’t offer some feature that is totally specific to their industry and has never been requested even once by anyone else previously. We’ll show them our feature request form on our site where you can also view and upvote other requests, and point out that the feature they want has never been requested. They will literally come up with some bs excuse why that is and then insist that we get on it and build out this custom functionality that they need or else they’re going to slander us on social media.
Your app doesn’t integrate with “didLr”? OMG any decent app integrates with “didLr”!
I understand the developer POV too. It’s clear that getting the right config for most use cases is a UX problem, which may involve user studies, telemetry to be setup. Perhaps out of scope for most small scale individual projects.
Additionally, I also fully understand that many, if not most of these projects are hobby projects and expectations from users should align with the scope of the project and the resources committed. It’s so easy to feel entitled and deserving of high quality projects but they are so time consuming.
My comments were not for those projects but rather mature ones. And contributing to the projects is often the most appreciated way when proposing changes.
In all cases, for any free project, it is always acceptable to answer that something is out of scope, that resources don’t allow for the feature to be implemented or that additional help on implementing it are welcome.
People demanding something in exchange for nothing are obviously not the most welcome users :)
There’s a real problem here with backwards compatibility. If you add an option for something, it makes sense to make the default match the functionality of old versions, even if it’s not the best for general use cases. That way any tools built on top of it can safely update.
Ding ding ding!
That said, the solution is to set new defaults for new installations only and not change existing configs. Users lose their minds (rightfully so) if you modify their existing configs.
I prefer the simple, sane defaults that work for everyone with a heavily commented config file giving detailed information on what each value for each option does, personally. Like MPV’s config file.
I think this ties in to the grander idea of: please provide information that is helpful on a nontechnical plane of thinking. It goes a very long way
There’s an awful lot of comments in this post from people complaining that developers aren’t making their projects attractive and user friendly enough, or the READMEs descriptive enough.
Can I just say, as a developer with some open source projects on github, I don’t care; you’re not my intended audience.
I find this unnecessarily derisive. There are good reasons for a UI or README not being user-friendly, the top-most one being (imo) that it is really, really hard to get right, takes a lot of time and doesn’t primarily solve the problem the project was started for.
You mean you think I’m being derisive? I think it’s important to remind people that not every open source dev shares their priorities, or indeed any interest whatsoever in whether other people use their code.
This whole post is filled with a really disappointing amount of entitlement and lack of self-awareness.
I think you generally can’t know if someone shared their code with the intention that others may use it, but it’s a reasonable assumption.
I don’t care; you’re not my intended audience.That’s pretty ignorant
That’s quite an accusation. Can you elaborate further on that please.
No. (I don’t care; you’re not my intended audience.)
Also please begin the Github page or whatever with a description of what the app is actually for or what it does. I know that sounds super obvious, but the number of times I’ve seen links that are like “I made this app from scratch for fun, let me know what you think!” and then you click through and the app is called Scrooblarr or something and it has no indication of what it actually does is… more than it should be.
It scroobles obviously!
That’s Sctooblerr. Scrooblarr is completely unrelated.
A README file is usually comprised of text.
Other than that - usually if it has a webpage, it has some screenshots.
README markdown files allow for inline image links to be “expanded”
Or at least a demo site if it’s a web site or self hosted web based app 🥲
100% agree! I always get so frustrated when there are no screenshots in the README.md or on the site.
On github you can even paste your screenshot right from the clipboard. Zero excuses for not having a screenshot.
Dear open source app user: feel free to improve the README file of the projects you come across by adding a few screenshots you believe are relevant.
Although I understand the OP’s perspective open-source is a community effort and people should have a more proactive attitude and contribute when they feel things aren’t okay. Most open-source developers aren’t focused / don’t have time for how things look (or at least not on the beginning). If you’re a regular user and you can spend an hour taking a bunch of screenshots and improving a readme you’ll be making more for the future the project that you might think.
When the last big Twitter migration to Mastodon occurred there were a lot new users complaining about things like documentation, bugs, etc. Old users and FLOSS supporters kept pushing the “its open source, write a doc or fill out a bug ticket” and evem included documentation on how to do those tasks.
Most people just continued to complain. /facepalm
We just don’t live in a world where making the changes you want are encouraged. We have been thought to just accept whatever changes happen or at most file a suggestion that almost noone will listen to. Obviously open source is different but it’s still such a tiny minority compared to how the rest of the world functions
As both user and developer - user CAN contribute but the developer/maintainer SHOULD add the screenshots.
If the app sucks, few people will add the screenshots. Therefore, most apps without screenshots will suck. So new apps will need the developer to add screenshots, or people will assume it sucks.
And we’re back to square one. The developer has extra responsibility to highlight the features.
Agree, I don’t know what’s so hard about a screenshot.
I imagine most single developer projects lack any design or UX so the screenshot would do little to encourage users to download.
I can only speak for myself and a handful of other people I know who are into FOSS, but for us we care more about it being functional than looking pretty. I just want to see what I’m getting into, a reference for what a successful install looks like, or just check to see if it’s got the buttons I want on it.
Anyone know of good Gitlab CI or GitHub actions for auto generating GUI screenshots and links them in the README? I only barely know testing tool and frameworks like OpenQA and Robot for GUI. Even better if we can get AVIF/GIF linked in there to see an app in motion.
Honestly though, documenting is a pain enough, I really don’t want to be doing screenshot walk throughs on anything I’m not paid to do.
Yup, if I don’t see screenshots for a desktop applications, I don’t bother since the developer clearly doesn’t understand what they’re doing. It’s especially baffling when it’s a WM/DE. It’s really trivial effort too. If the devs don’t get this basic point, it’s going to reflect in their poorly designed UX/UI as well.
Where should I store the screenshots? In a screenshots folder in the repo? Should I update them at some time? Should I screenshot both light and dark theme?
Yes. Git can store binary files fine. It’s not the most efficient for storing them, but it works, especially for a small number of screenshots. For updating and theme, that’s entirely up to you. It’s all a judgement call. If you want to show off your functionality (like a dark mode), I encourage you to include screenshots of it. If you substantially change your UI, update the images.
You don’t have to update for every new button you add. It’s more about giving a general impression of the UI. Is it minimalist? Is it a chaotic mess? Does it look like it fits in naturally with whatever OS appears to have been used? Does it look like any thought was put into UI and UX? Those are the kinds of things you’re trying to answer.
Where: In the repository, most projects seem to use
mediaorscreenshotsas the name of the directory.How often: Whenever a big change happened or many small changes have accumulated.
What: Light theme suffices. I only care about the general look and feel, not about specific colors.
That’s how I would do it for my own projects.
