A list of things made in these two years at xpub

Hello worlding

In this presentation i will look at the work made across the 2 years & how it changed my understanding of programming and code documentation.

Code documentation as a broad set of practices: comments in code, readme files, tutorials, guides, references, moments of collective learning, workshops, pair programming and collaborative versioning.

These aspects are usually marginal in software development: byproducts surrounding the real thing, extra work, and demand of resources often not available in the scarce economy around documentation.

I would like to focus on these marginal zones, bring them to the center and reflect on how they can enrich practices of programming, opening entry points and backdoors into the making of software for people that are usually left out.

The institutional required list of things done during these two years is left in the background, squint your eyes and move the cursor to the edges to see through.

Getting startled




started documenting things

documentation workout
intro on my page in the soupboat



screen of soup-gen
soup generator aka our first prototype

screen of soup-gen with tech questions
doubts for the soup gen




realized after many year of collective practice that there's a difference in making something for a group and making something together.

Started appreciating other kind of values in code


From code to code documentation



Eventually focused on something closer to home: the friction between being frustrated having to deal with undocumented piece of software, and at the same time never documenting anything.

And realized that what I'm interested on besides developing tools, is the moment of development itself. And a way to share that with others it's code documentation. Creating entry points and opening backdoors to the making of software.

Code documentation is an interface between the code, the user, the developer, and the world. Living close to the source code, but at the same time being less rigid and more expressive, it seems to be an ideal surface to influence software development practices.

That was more or less the moment when I started being more aware about my and others approach to documentation. And learned how diverse and rich practices of code documentation can be:

scanned materials for the documentation sessions. some sticker, flyers and text, printed on pink paper
Materials printed for documentation session

Scan of the zine Care for Code
Care for code - zine for Documentation Session

Code documentation as personal understanding

a drawing with a cute bird playing the role of an API between server and client

a screenshot of a meme with a soaked sweated man trying not to use the analogy of the restaurant to explain the api

fancy graphic designed documentation to digest flask

Chae's drawing - Miri's meme - Supi's diyry


Code documentation as shared struggle

comment in code:
comment in code
comment in code
comment in code
comment in code

Comments in the code screaming for help


Code documentation as collective practice

Documentation for a repeat function with some nice parrot
Folder with Jupiter notebook files, each with a different piece of documentation for SI16

piece of flask documentation written with Chae
Writing some documentation for Flask together with Chae

The project is a restitution of this year long process.

plans for final publication and grad show

Code documentation is a marginal practice, often invisible labor, usually left in the background. For grad show and final pubblication would like to bring it more to the center.

There will be 2 kind of things at the exhibition

1. helloworlding.com

Is a small website to archive pathways through code documentation practice. at the current stage a pathway is an annotated collection of readmes. Readmes are presented with a short intro and link directly at the place where they originally can be found, that is in their repos.

It will be exhibited on a small screen connected to the Soupboat, for the occasion going on a field trip at the slash gallery.

This archive is a readingwriting machine.

For the exhibition the website will work as an invitation, with the possibility to sign in to receive update about new pathways.

⚠️ work in progress

2. readme readers

Keyword are: readme republishing readme readers

There will be printed snapshots of readme files mainly coming from tools developed in the context of the soupboat, bound together as readme readers by means of a custom, loose binding setup.

These readers will be a snapshot of the current pathways curated in helloworlding.com

These are aspects of code documentation practices I want to be reflected in the installation setup:

To bring under spotlight a theme that is a niche in a niche requires to create some relatable entry points. Code documentation is a surface in the middle of different kinds of audience, so different kind of entry points are necessary.

soupboat with legs

That's why for the exhibition im binding the readme readers with clumsy 3d printed legs. These legs started as a playful device to make our server run 4x faster, and eventually became one of visible marks of software developed around Soupboat.

As binding device they work as:

prototype legs binding

Prototype legs binding

Future

helloworlding.com will work as a hub to continue the research and practice around code docs, like the archive in the soupboat has done these two years.