Hacker News Reader

> it is complaining in a satirical way about installation readmes, that maybe they could be made easier, that also non developers can follow some simple steps

See I missed that context :D

Installation readmes are an interesting example – they shouldn’t exist. Put that effort in an install script instead.

If you want me to mechanically follow some steps, perhaps with a decision tree attached … computers are really good at that!

View on HN

The install script may not have all the context it needs to be installed. In the long run it is better to teach the user how your software works in plain english.

Even in projects with an install script, for example pmbootstrap, the install script also needs a tutorial.

In my experience, projects with minimal documentation and an install script will have the the install script fail halfway through because it assumed something about my system that isn't true, or it will do something incredibly insecure like requesting su and then curl | bash

The installation readme generally tells you how to invoke the install script that does all the really complicated stuff.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com