Talk:Developer

Merge with Develop

The Develop page has been unloved for a long time. I recently put in a component diagram to try to make it more useful, and merged the Developer Documentation page in with it, to try to centralise efforts there. I'm a bit surprised that nobody has paid any attention to that (made corrections). I guess all the developers are busy developing!

I think creating this page just muddies the waters again, so I plan to merge this page with Develop. If the contents of Develop do not serve as a useful starting point for OSM developers, then we should change that page. -- Harry Wood 10:11, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

I think a one page starter here is good - it's 'I'm a developer' for people new to project whereas the Develop page is really a more detailed overview, or reference.

But i'd agree this is not a good page - the top is not good - i mean 'copyright easter eggs - maps that lie' - that's pretty obscure for link number 2 when you want to know about developing for this project... in fact i've re-arranged it. I'd also say 'Develop' is an odd name - that's an action, not a topic - there isn't an 'Edit' page, it's 'Browsing' and 'Editing', so i'd say it should be 'Developing' to keep in with site. Danm

The Develop page in the past has been a kind of portal (collection of handy links) for developers. I tried clarify things by splitting development efforts into 'components' of OSM, but maybe I just made that page look more like a reference manual. It isn't supposed to be. It's supposed to be a handy starting page linking to development related info which is exactly what this page is perhaps trying to do... or.... actaully what is this page for? The past couple of sections plonked on this page just make it more messy and unclear.

I'm suggesting this merge, but I'm not saying the Develop page is perfect. Lets improve it, to make a useful one-stop-shop for developers (linking into more specific pages) ...and let's do it one place, with prominent link on the Main Page (I like this)

'Develop' or 'Developing' or 'Developer' or 'Development'. I dont know, but those issues easily smoothed over using #REDRIECT -- Harry Wood 16:36, 11 April 2007 (BST)

I personally agree about the final two sections, but thought removal was a big step.

Right well I've just moved those bottom sections onto their own wiki pages: Developer community and Submitting Code, linked off the Develop page. I've also beautified the Develop page and made it look less like a manual. So I'm going ahead with the merge now. -- Harry Wood 00:31, 2 July 2007 (BST)

At the Essen workshop we have been discussing how to attract new developers. There needs to be an entry point for new addicts, clearly stating which tools exist for what purpose and where help is needed, so people interested in doing something quickly can get an overview if there's something to do which fits the personal knowledge and interest. Additionally it should link to documentation resources and the svn repository. I agree though that this required to restructure the devel pages. --SlowRider 22:13, 8 May 2007 (BST)

API?

Need link to/section about API on this page? Ojw 14:22, 1 July 2007 (BST)