We just released a new chapter of the Maintaining Open Source Projects book: “Documentation”.
The new chapter describes the different documents that make up a good project that will attract a successful community: what content should be described, where it should be published, how it should be built, and how to make it discoverable and useful to users and maintainers alike.
Maintaining Open Source Projects is useful for you if you want to learn the soft skills needed to grow and maintain a software project following open source practices. It covers topics such as shaping the community, promoting your library, keeping good communication with many different people, deciding when to release new versions, and prioritizing all of the above.
This book is useful even outside of open source. For example, as a software company you can embrace the practices that for years have encouraged thorough code reviews, forthright communication, and efficient collaboration. The book is built following the very same practices it describes, so you get access to its GitHub repository, commits, discussions, etc.
Like our other beta books, this is a work in progress. You may find errors, but you’ll also be able to ask questions and help shape the book’s development. You’ll get a $10 discount on the final price, and regular updates as we write more chapters.
Download a free sample, and if you like it you may buy the beta version at a 25% discount. Enjoy!