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Somewhat of a tangential comment: I love that README files have become useful again, say, in the last 10 years. I think GitHub and the proliferation of open sou
by bxparks 6y ago
Somewhat of a tangential comment: I love that README files have become useful again, say, in the last 10 years. I think GitHub and the proliferation of open source projects may have had something to do with that.
My memory is a bit fuzzy, but back in the late 1980s and most of 1990s, the README file was useful,and it was the first thing that I opened when I downloaded a software package. Then sometime in the 2000s, the corporate lawyers took over the README file and it just became a wall of CAPITALIZED legal text that contained zero useful information. I stopped opening the README files. Then sometime in the 2010s, the README files became useful again, and I started to read them again. Not exactly sure when that happened.
- einpoklum 6y ago> I love that README files have become useful again, say, in the last 10 years. They have always been extremely useful, actually. It is always the first thing you open when you download a package (well, that or INSTALL). You're right that the README's of, say, MS-Windows or such software is less useful, but I don't know that this situation has improved recently. Perhaps it's just your use of FOSS? :-)