When starting a project it's best to read up a bit. Hitting the tubes I found that this is easier said than done. My brief search turned up a number of websites, all of which may or may not be canonical:
So...um...huh? Where's a gal supposed to start? I assumed that perl6.org would be the place to be but it just didn't feel right. So I found my way to dev.perl.org, hoping to find more guidance there. No...that's not working either. Perl Foundation? Um...a little better...I think. If nothing else I can at least fix some broken links in the wiki...
I've since heard from a friend that rakudo.org is the happening place in the Perl 6 community. How in the hell a person is supposed to know that without a guide is entirely beyond me. I mean, you'd think at least one of the "top level" Perl 6 sites (why so many? Why? Why not have just one and all the others point to it?) would have said "Go there. Start at rakudo."
Heck, a simple, "Go there. Start by reading The Spec" or something similarly useful would be nice.
So, no, I still don't know how/where this path starts. But I'm not giving up yet so, hey, Allons-y!.
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6 comments:
Actually, I would have said perl6.org is the right place to start. It's not perfect, but the basic frontpage is full of useful and active links. Rakudo is certainly the p6 implementation to try at the moment, but perl6.org is the most useful web portal.
colomon, I did actually start at perl6.org. You're right, it does have a lot of useful and active links there and I'm sorry if I implied otherwise. But for a newbie? It's not very helpful.
For instance, where on perl6.org does it say where I can find the latest list of tasks on which people can help (issue tracker, etc)? Where does it say what the protocol is for contributing? Yes, I could check something in on SVN but then what? Where's a newbie to start?
In general I find that there are a lot of otherwise simple steps which are taken for granted by experienced contributors and so therefore never explained. It raises the barrier to entry and makes the process seem esoteric and not very welcoming.
The Spec: http://perlcabal.org/syn/
A good place to start reading: http://perlgeek.de/blog-en/perl-5-to-6
Thanks, Chas. The spec isn't hard to find and I'd already started perusing it. The Perl 5 to 6 doc is also available on perl6.org. As colomon pointed out, there *are* helpful links there. There's just not a good "newbie on-boarding" page or process.
My answer to your blog post became pretty lengthy, so I made it a blog post on my own: http://perlgeek.de/blog-en/perl-6/an-entry-point-for-newcomers.html
Thanks, moritz! I'll try to give that a read this evening.
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