Open source devs: please, please add screenshots...

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

Me, developing a headless component library:

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.

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.

Wait what? I thought the read me file was to put as little info as possible to prove how awesome anyone was who can use the program.

You should open a PR. 🙂

Or at least a demo site if it's a web site or self hosted web based app 🥲

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 🙈

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.

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.

Also, installation instructions that don't assume you're already an expert.

100% agree! I always get so frustrated when there are no screenshots in the README.md or on the site.

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.

no pics no clicks, as they used to say

While I get the sentiment, historically, readmes have been text only, and should predominately focus on usage options, not a sales pitch. Today in GitHub, these files support markdown, but the level of effort is probably two orders of magnitude higher than a text readme alone.

Think of a readme file on GitHub/distributed with the binary more as a man page than a proper website.

To be fair, most of time you can just Google %appname% screenshot. I understand that this is not as convenient as having screenshots in the readme, but eh, it's not as big of a problem when you realize this.

P.S. I do actually add at least one screenshot for my software. Maybe because sometimes UI is one of the main focus, idk. I just feel like it.

Dear Open source devs: Do something I'm too lazy to contribute.

No. ReadMe files should be concise, explicit, and text only. UI/UX screenshots can be part of the repo, wiki, or associated website but they shouldn't be in the ReadMe.

If you don't understand the software you're installing from some rando stranger's git repo then you shouldn't install it. Period. Take the opportunity to learn more or use another tool.

Git repos are not app stores. The devs don't owe you anything.

The vast majority of software in publicly accessible git repos are personal projects, hobbies, and one-off experiments.

Your relationship with the software and the devs that create and maintain it is your responsibility. Try talking to the devs, ask them questions, attempt to understand why they constructed their project in whatever specific way they have. You might make some new friends, or learn something really interesting. And if you encounter rudeness, hostility, or incompetence you're free to move on, such is the nature of our ever-evolving open-source community.

We bring a lot of preconceived notions into the open-source / foss / software development space as we embark on our own journey of personal development. I try to always remember it's the journey of discovery and the relationships we curate along the way that is the real prize.

Who reads README's anyway? Aren't they like instruction manuals? You only read them once its broken? :) Or maybe i should start reading instruction manuals..

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?

TURE...👍

A README file is usually comprised of text.

Other than that - usually if it has a webpage, it has some screenshots.

Don't forget to assume what works on macOS also will work fine on a Linux server deployment.

Too lazy to just look the UI up and you want others to waste their time giving you numerous UI screenshots. Hypocrite

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.

I prefer install instructions. Not everything is in AUR.

I totally agree that screenshots and a proper description of the app in the README are a must-have for all foss apps, but as a developer I know that most of the times you prefer use your time to add new features to your app rather then documenting existing ones...

Personally I'll try to add them to all my future projects but what I would suggest to everyone who use and love a foss app is to check out its README and, if needed, submit a pull request with an updated version of it with screenshot etc (You don't need to be a developer to do that and it can be really appreciated)

Hey, all you folks ought to get together and publish a guide to writing good FOSS documentation,