Why Doesn’t Anyone Use My Library?

When, why, and how to open source code, and how to get it into real-world use. Lessons learned working on Pydub (audio for humans, a la requests). It's grown to incorporate contributions from around the world, over 1000 stars on GitHub and the nicest API you'll find this side of the DAC.

Transcript

1. WHY DOESN’T
   ANYONE
   USE MY LIBRARY?
   

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2. OR…
   

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3. HOW TO BUILD SOMETHING USEFUL AND
   HELP IT GAIN ADOPTION BY NURTURING IT
   FOR YEARS AND NOT BITING OFF MORE THAN
   YOU CAN CHEW.
   

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4. View Slide

5. @JIAARO
   

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6. WHY DOESN’T
   ANYONE
   USE MY LIBRARY?
   

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7. 3 REASONS
   

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8. 3 REASONS
   1. They’ve never heard of it
   

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9. 3 REASONS
   1. They’ve never heard of it
   2. It doesn’t fit their needs
   

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10. 3 REASONS
    1. They’ve never heard of it
    2. It doesn’t fit their needs
    3. Using something else instead
    

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11. STORY TIME
    

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12. THIS’LL BE EASY
    sound1 = open(“talking.wav”, “rb”).read()
    

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13. THIS’LL BE EASY
    sound1 = open(“talking.wav”, “rb”).read()
    sound2 = open(“music.mp3”, “rb”).read()
    

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14. THIS’LL BE EASY
    sound1 = open(“talking.wav”, “rb”).read()
    sound2 = open(“music.mp3”, “rb”).read()
    combined = sound1 + sound2
    

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15. THIS’LL BE EASY
    sound1 = open(“talking.wav”, “rb”).read()
    sound2 = open(“music.mp3”, “rb”).read()
    combined = sound1 + sound2
    out_f = open(“this_will_totally_work.???”, “wb”)
    

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16. THIS’LL BE EASY
    sound1 = open(“talking.wav”, “rb”).read()
    sound2 = open(“music.mp3”, “rb”).read()
    combined = sound1 + sound2
    out_f = open(“this_will_totally_work.MP3”, “wb”)
    out_f.write(combined)
    

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17. THIS’LL BE EASY
    sound1 = open(“talking.wav”, “rb”).read()
    sound2 = open(“music.WAV”, “rb”).read()
    combined = sound1 + sound2
    out_f = open(“this_will_totally_work.WAV”, “wb”)
    out_f.write(combined)
    

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18. THIS’LL BE EASY
    # coding: -*- utf-8 -*-
    import wave
    sound1 = wave.open(“talking.wav”, “rb”)
    sound2 = wave.open(“music.wav”, “rb”)
    out_f = wave.open(“this_will_totally_work.WAV”, “wb”)
    # Who even knows what this does ¯\_()_/¯
    out_f.setparams(sound1.getparams())
    # manual accounting ಠ_ಠ
    sound1_frames = sound1.getnframes()
    sound2_frames = sound2.getnframes()
    out_f.setnframes(sound1_frames + sound2_frames)
    out_f.writeframes(sound1.readframes(sound1_frames))
    out_f.writeframes(sound2.readframes(sound2_frames))
    out_f.close()
    

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20. RE-EVALUATE MY DECISIONS
    AND/OR LIFE
    

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21. THIS’LL BE EASY
    ▸ Channels (Mono, Stereo)
    ▸ Sample Rate (44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 22,050 kHz, …0
    ▸ Bit depth (8 / 16 / 24 / 32 bit)
    

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22. THIS’LL BE EASY
    import wave
    import audioop
    sound1 = wave.open(“talking.wav”, “rb”)
    sound2 = wave.open(“music.wav”, “rb”)
    out_f = wave.open(“this_will_totally_work.WAV”, “wb”)
    sound1_frames = sound1.getnframes()
    sound2_frames = sound2.getnframes()
    sound1_data = sound1.readframes(sound1_frames)
    sound2_data = sound2.readframes(sound2_frames)
    sound2_data_converted, _ = audioop.ratecv(
    sound2_data,
    sound2.getsampwidth(),
    sound2.getnchannels(),
    sound2.getframerate(),
    sound1.getframerate(),
    None
    )
    out_f.setparams(sound1.getparams())
    out_f.setnframes(sound1_frames + sound2_frames)
    out_f.writeframes(sound1_data)
    out_f.writeframes(sound2_data_converted)
    out_f.close()
    

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26. 3 REASONS
    1. They’ve never heard of it
    2. It doesn’t fit their needs
    3. Using something else instead
    

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27. 3. THEY’RE USING
    SOMETHING ELSE
    

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28. 3. THEY’RE USING SOMETHING ELSE
    ▸ What are people using now?
    ▸ What are the criticisms?
    ▸ What do they like?
    

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29. A
    GOOD API
    is worth it
    

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30. from pydub import AudioSegment
    sound1 = AudioSegment.from_wav(“sound.wav”)
    sound2 = AudioSegment.from_mp3(“music.mp3”)
    combined = sound1.append(sound2, crossfade=1000)
    combined.export(“tada.mp3”, format=“mp3”)
    

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31. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls
    and looks like work.
    ▸ Thomas Edison
    

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32. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls
    and looks like work.
    ▸ Henry Dodd
    

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33. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls
    and looks like work.
    ▸ Anonymous
    

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34. The successful man was out and on the job long before opportunity
    came a-knocking.
    And this same opportunity, by the way, is ofttimes disguised as hard
    work
    ▸ Anonymous
    

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35. Showing up is 80 percent of life.
    ▸ Woody Allen
    

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36. Showing up is 80 percent of life.
    ▸ Marshall Brickman
    

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37. Showing up is 80 percent of life.
    ▸ Woody Allen
    

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39. BUILD Libraries,
    NOT FRAMEWORKS
    

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42. DON’T BITE OFF MORE THAN
    YOU CAN CHEW
    

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45. 1. Github
    2. Stack Overflow: pydub tag via RSS
    3. PyPI: for pip install
    

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46. GITHUB
    ▸ octopress: Barebones landing page
    ▸ issues: Bugs/Features
    ▸ docs: markdown files in the repo
    ▸ AUTHORS file: has my email and twitter
    

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47. 1. Github
    2. Stack Overflow: pydub tag via RSS
    3. PyPI: for pip install
    

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48. THE LONG HAUL
    

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49. DON’T FORGET ABOUT YOUR
    RESEARCH
    

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50. STORY TIME
    (CONTINUED)
    

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52. LUCK
    

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53. RECAP
    

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54. RECAP
    ▸ Solve a real problem
    

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55. RECAP
    ▸ Solve a real problem
    ▸ Nice API
    

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56. RECAP
    ▸ Solve a real problem
    ▸ Nice API
    ▸ Don’t overcommit
    

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57. RECAP
    ▸ Solve a real problem
    ▸ Nice API
    ▸ Don’t overcommit
    ▸ Keep showing up
    

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58. THANKS!
    James Robert
    @jiaaro
    pydub.com
    pydub@jiaaro.com
    james@mediapredict.com
    

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