Your experience mirrors mine, where you must refer to the Rust and/or JS code to have a chance in hell.
Yep... and if you and I got discouraged, how many other developers did as well? This is why good docs are essential for a healthy ecosystem.
No, I was just chewing on various ideas to integrate with Lemmy and was disappointed with the docs I saw. They seemed OK-ish if you wanted to use the JS client, but not great if you want to do something else.
On similar projects, I'm used to seeing OpenAPI/Swagger/etc. where you have docs on the incoming bodies/fields, what values they can contain, etc.
Right now it's really bare bones. I see things like 'auth' OPTIONAL but not really sure what would go in there.
I can RTFS like another poster said, but of course that's not as convenient as "general purpose" API docs with examples / tutorial.
I was curious to see if the reply was going to be:
- We are happy with the state of docs (WONTFIX)
OR
- The current situation is temporary and we will provide better docs at some point in the future
Lemmy's API documentation currently appears to be the JS client implementation found here: https://join-lemmy.org/api/
This is very misleading, as these docs document the behavior of the JS client and do not provide a language neutral way to figure out what's going on.
Compare Lemmy's docs with something like the ActivityPub docs https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/
Going off ActivityPub, I could actually start to see how it all works and looks together. With Lemmy, I can reason about how the JS client works and do my best, but working with Lemmy you sometimes have to consume the Rust source as well.
So, this raises the barrier of entry for someone wanting to do Lemmy integrations to someone that needs to consume the above docs, plus be comfortable reading JS and Rust.
I saw some older posts from the lemmy devs saying: "Well, writing docs is hard, so it's easier if we generate the docs from our JS client."
They aren't wrong, writing documentation IS hard. If Lemmy is serious about attracting a larger ecosystem, I consider better API documentation to be on the hot path. I'm concerned that the devs are happy with the autogenerated docs above and won't put any effort into improving them. Even worse, the people generating these docs are already familiar with Lemmy, so they probably think the current docs are adequate.
I don't know a quick solution -- raise money to pay someone to write docs? No clue. But, if you want to attract developers to this ecosystem, the current API documentation is insufficient.
Sorry, we had to deny your application because you're Asian. Try another school.
Reddit comment threads are currently just full of groupmind wankery. I like being on a platform where I don't 100% agree with everyone and I don't have to hold "sanctioned" opinions that are approved by a mod team of 3.
Exactly!!! They don't care about social causes, etc. They just want the most clicks on their clickbait headlines. Simple as. If there was some crazy twist to the migrant story, like Hunter Biden being on board or something it would have dominated the headlines. The main sin of the migrants was not being clickbaity enough.
But if I block everyone I disagree with, I won't have to censor anyone!
Bahaha... "Anything I can't argue my way out of" = hate speech
What about Leviticus 20:13? Is that hate speech?
and eventually it most likely would be by someone
Err, this has already happened quite a few times.
What if my ideas are so fragile that mere exposure to a contrasting opinion makes them crumble?
Totally, but at least Oracle doesn't pretend they are some kind of beacon of open source. Red Hat is trying to party like it's 1999 while it's just a boring division of IBM now.
RANT AHEAD:
Quite a few times now, I've seen the complaint that "the news refuses to cover the story about the migrants' sinking ship and focuses on the billionaires instead".
This strikes me as totally unsurprising. 99% of all news sites are given by gathering clicks and eyeballs. The Titan story has it all:
- Billionaires
- Zany CEO with submarine with oddly sourced parts
- Tie in to one of the most famous shipwrecks of all time
- A story that's technically easy to understand (the sub went underwater and was lost, you don't need a degree in advanced physics to appreciate this)
- Some drama because they might have been underwater without oxygen vs. instantly dead due to decompression
- The possibility of an exciting sea rescue
vs the migrants' story
- No one famous or of note on board
- This is by far NOT the first vessel lost in this manner
- No exciting twists
I'm sorry, but if I headed up a news room OF COURSE you will run the first story. It's simply more exciting. This is NOT an example of class war or a personal vendetta against the poor.
If you are one of those who think the migrants story should be more closely followed why don't YOU lead a discussion about it, volunteer your money and/or time to organizations that support migrants, etc.
It's also a really boring complaint to see, because nearly ALL of the major news outlets DID cover the story, but guess what, it is far less engaging, so it gets less attention overall.
Don't blame the news for what stories get big -- blame the public and their fascination with these stories. The news outlets are only putting out what their audience wants to see.
Feel free to start a site that talks only about migration issues, but I think you'll find it way harder to make money vs talking about clickbait.
RANT AHEAD:
Quite a few times now, I've seen the complaint that "the news refuses to cover the story about the migrants' sinking ship and focuses on the billionaires instead".
This strikes me as totally unsurprising. 99% of all news sites are given by gathering clicks and eyeballs. The Titan story has it all:
- Billionaires
- Zany CEO with submarine with oddly sourced parts
- Tie in to one of the most famous shipwrecks of all time
- A story that's technically easy to understand (the sub went underwater and was lost, you don't need a degree in advanced physics to appreciate this)
- Some drama because they might have been underwater without oxygen vs. instantly dead due to decompression
- The possibility of an exciting sea rescue
vs the migrants' story
- No one famous or of note on board
- This is by far NOT the first vessel lost in this manner
- No exciting twists
I'm sorry, but if I headed up a news room OF COURSE you will run the first story. It's simply more exciting. This is NOT an example of class war or a personal vendetta against the poor.
If you are one of those who think the migrants story should be more closely followed why don't YOU lead a discussion about it, volunteer your money and/or time to organizations that support migrants, etc.
It's also a really boring complaint to see, because nearly ALL of the major news outlets DID cover the story, but guess what, it is far less engaging, so it gets less attention overall.
Don't blame the news for what stories get big -- blame the public and their fascination with these stories. The news outlets are only putting out what their audience wants to see.
Feel free to start a site that talks only about migration issues, but I think you'll find it way harder to make money vs talking about clickbait.
Why WOULDN'T we move off if something better came along?
I am. It’s there in the GPL text in black and white. Red Hat does not have any right to place restrictions on the distribution of derivative works that they do not own the original copyright for. Threatening to terminate a service agreement is a restriction.
From what I understand, these restrictions only apply to if you have been provided the software. Red Hat is under no legal obligation to supply you with their software, nor to continue doing so if you violate their terms.
I agree this makes them total scumbags, but as far as I understand the GPL they are not breaking the law.
The new model is "fuck you, pay me"
Nothing a fork or two won't solve.
Canonical has their own problems right now... Not a lot of snap fans out there. Canonical seems determined to skate to somewhere their users don't live and create a world they don't want.
hey everyone, just wanted to vent a bit about something that's been bugging me. have you ever tried getting our dear chatgpt to write a song? i mean, we all love this AI for many things, but songwriting is definitely not its forte.
it seems like every time i ask it to write a song, i end up with a tune that has the most basic AABB rhyme scheme. i mean, come on, even my five-year-old nephew can write a song with more complexity. it's like it's stuck in a perpetual nursery rhyme mode.
i get that it's an AI and can't exactly tap into the creative genius of a lennon or a dylan, but a little variation would be nice, right? it'd be great if openai could tweak it a bit to give it some musical diversity.
anyone else share my frustration, or am i just expecting too much from our songwriting AI friend? let's chat about it!
An ironic observation - I've been understanding Reddit better here on Lemmy than while actually on Reddit. It's fascinating how this platform, while being an alternative, can offer such deep insights about another.
Has anyone else experienced this paradox? Would love to hear your thoughts.
