All Things Open

from rags to open-source

All Things Open
Raleigh, NC
October 2014

(http://allthingsopen.org/speakers/mike-mcneil/)
Video: http://youtu.be/MSkM4uqFsMI?t=13m43s

Transcript

1. from rags to open-source
   Raleigh, North Carolina
   2014
   

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2. Mike McNeil
   @mikermcneil
   github.com/mikermcneil
   

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3. bdfl of
   the leading open-source
   MVC framework for Node.js
   

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4. the leading open-source
   MVC framework for Node.js
   

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5. at least pageviews since 2013
   830,000
   GitHub stars
   8,030
   over downloads / day
   1,500
   

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6. in funding
   $0
   

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8. est. feb 2012
   

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10. (us)
    (customer)
    (Javascript app)
    

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11. love at first sight
    circa 2011
    Node.js...
    

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12. “We’re doing I/O
    completely wrong.”
    

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13. Unterschied!”
    “Not acceptable!”
    

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14. “Threads should
    be used by
    experts only.”
    “Concurrency
    should be easy.”
    

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15. How is that possible?
    (copy the browser)
    

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16. // synchronous!
    console.log(‘hi’)
    // asynchronous!
    setTimeout(function (){!
    console.log(‘hi’);!
    }, 240000000);
    vs.
    incredible
    

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17. could we use
    …for everything?
    I wondered…
    

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18. so…
    

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20. You don't want to be writing all
    these system calls.
    You need something that gives
    you… an ORM abstraction, or
    something.
    

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21. so Sails.js was born
    

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24. Sails is an MVC framework.
    

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25. Sails is an MVC framework.
    

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26. Sails is an MVC framework.
    

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27. Sails is an MVC framework.
    

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28. Sails is an MVC framework.
    

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29. Sails is an MVC framework.
    

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30. Sails is an MVC framework.
    

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31. Sails is an MVC framework.
    

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32. first version (late 2011)
    

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33. December 2012
    

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35. >=20 other community adapters custom app-specific adapters
    

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36. January 2013
    first halfway-decent docs
    http://web.archive.org/web/20130514080123/http://balderdashy.github.io/sails/
    

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37. posted screencast in early 2013
    

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38. …woke up to 1000 views
    

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39. reddit — Feb 2013
    hacker news — Mar 2013
    and again two months later
    

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41. managed to get sailsjs.org online
    mid-spring 2013
    

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42. issues
    pull requests

    questions
    

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46. ????
    

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47. ???????????
    

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48. v0.9 introduced
    a new streamlined asset pipeline
    

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49. asset pipeline????
    “what about gulp?!”
    “so thirsty…”
    asset pipeline????????!!!!
    asset pipeline????????!!!!
    asset pipeline????????!!!!
    asset pipeline????????!!!!
    asset pipeline????????!!!!
    

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50. so v0.10 introduced generators.
    

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51. feature requests
    are the hydra
    

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52. they will never stop.
    

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53. they will never stop.
    ever.
    

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54. moral of the story
    

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55. only write code you actually need
    if someone else actually needs something,
    
    they’ll write a pull request
    only merge new code if someone actually needs
    you to merge it (i.e. there’s no other way, via a
    plugin or something)
    

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58. Supporting the Community
    

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59. Tools
    Metrics
    Advice
    

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60. #sails on freenode (IRC)
    issues
    groups
    

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61. Tools
    Metrics
    Advice
    

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62. • Github stars
    
    • NPM downloads / day
    
    • Google group membership
    
    • IRC channel activity
    
    • Number of tagged StackOverflow questions

    (and your answer ratio)
    

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63. Tools
    Metrics
    Advice
    

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64. inline jsdoc comments
    are not enough
    write docs in markdown
    compile to HTML
    

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65. don’t repeat yourself
    DRY
    

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66. don’t repeat ourselves
    DRO
    the goal of open source
    

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67. make an IRC channel
    
    start a Google group
    
    post a YouTube video
    so
    

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68. support !== marketing
    but remember
    

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69. support !== marketing
    ( )
    but remember
    

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70. far more front-end developers
    ∃
    than back-end developers
    

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71. far more front-end developers
    ∃
    than back-end developers
    eventually
    everyday backend development
    
    will be commoditized
    

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72. Questions?
    

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73. from rags to open-source
    @mikermcneil
    

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