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?
2. OR…
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.
5. @JIAARO
6. WHY DOESN’T ANYONE USE MY LIBRARY?
7. 3 REASONS
8. 3 REASONS 1. They’ve never heard of it
9. 3 REASONS 1. They’ve never heard of it 2. It doesn’t fit their needs
10. 3 REASONS 1. They’ve never heard of it 2. It doesn’t fit their needs 3. Using something else instead
11. STORY TIME
12. THIS’LL BE EASY sound1 = open(“talking.wav”, “rb”).read()
13. THIS’LL BE EASY sound1 = open(“talking.wav”, “rb”).read() sound2 = open(“music.mp3”, “rb”).read()
14. THIS’LL BE EASY sound1 = open(“talking.wav”, “rb”).read() sound2 = open(“music.mp3”, “rb”).read() combined = sound1 + sound2
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”)
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)
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)
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()
20. RE-EVALUATE MY DECISIONS AND/OR LIFE
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)
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()
26. 3 REASONS 1. They’ve never heard of it 2. It doesn’t fit their needs 3. Using something else instead
27. 3. THEY’RE USING SOMETHING ELSE
28. 3. THEY’RE USING SOMETHING ELSE ▸ What are people using now? ▸ What are the criticisms? ▸ What do they like?
29. A GOOD API is worth it
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”)
31. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. ▸ Thomas Edison
32. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. ▸ Henry Dodd
33. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. ▸ Anonymous
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
35. Showing up is 80 percent of life. ▸ Woody Allen
36. Showing up is 80 percent of life. ▸ Marshall Brickman
37. Showing up is 80 percent of life. ▸ Woody Allen
39. BUILD Libraries, NOT FRAMEWORKS
42. DON’T BITE OFF MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW
45. 1. Github 2. Stack Overflow: pydub tag via RSS 3. PyPI: for pip install
46. GITHUB ▸ octopress: Barebones landing page ▸ issues: Bugs/Features ▸ docs: markdown files in the repo ▸ AUTHORS file: has my email and twitter
47. 1. Github 2. Stack Overflow: pydub tag via RSS 3. PyPI: for pip install
48. THE LONG HAUL
49. DON’T FORGET ABOUT YOUR RESEARCH
50. STORY TIME (CONTINUED)
52. LUCK
53. RECAP
54. RECAP ▸ Solve a real problem
55. RECAP ▸ Solve a real problem ▸ Nice API
56. RECAP ▸ Solve a real problem ▸ Nice API ▸ Don’t overcommit
57. RECAP ▸ Solve a real problem ▸ Nice API ▸ Don’t overcommit ▸ Keep showing up
58. THANKS! James Robert @jiaaro pydub.com pydub@jiaaro.com james@mediapredict.com