sulfurousacid

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Keeble
@Keeble

github might be one of the least intutitive sites to download anything from to a non-tech expert and what's particularly frustrating is the tech expert types seemingly having no clue that github is INCREDIBLY hard to parse


Keeble
@Keeble

seriously, look at this screenshot (for example) and tell me where im supposed to click to download what i need



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in reply to @Keeble's post:

github primarily hosts code, but it also provides a bunch of other services, like checking that the code is valid, and even turning it into executables (or otherwise "finished products") automatically every time you edit. that's done though "Actions", which you can see info about under the tab near the top with that label. it has probably the most confusing UI of any part of the site, and only allows you to download anything useful when signed-in

like, on the one hand, i agree with what you're saying, don't get me wrong. i am a Tech Person and i often get lost in github's labyrinthine website

but on the other hand, this is kind of a trick question because the answer has been cropped out of this screenshot

Came here to say this

But yes that's a stupid place for them to live, there should just be a releases tab at the top and even THAT'S not really going to make sense to people not familiar with github.

i figured this out eventualy, but "releases" does not parse as "downloads" to me at all. also that screenshot was all that fit on my screen, the tab is legit below the fold (so to speak) on my screen

Correct, a person going to a website to download a program should not be expected to gravitate towards "releases" by default. And yes, you still have to start scrolling to see it.

I believe github has a way to build a simple webpage for this exact reason, I do not know if you need to pay them for this feature or what other reasons more devs don't opt for it. It's more often that they have a downloads link in the README.md preview, which is alllll the way down past the whole file list.

This is all to say, you are correct, github is a terrible place for people to find their download.

IIRC you make another repository called username.github.io and push HTML/CSS for a static website.

And the problem is that Github does not have just one kind of download. Developers are there to download the source code, end users are there to download a binary release.

The actual failure in this process was a few steps ago where the project should have explained how to install from winget/chocolatey/brew/apt/yum or else have a download link on a dedicated project website that is not just the readme.md on Github.

to create a page for a project (as opposed to a user) its as simple as enabling pages in the repo settings and pushing your HTML/CSS to a branch called gh-pages and you're done. it'd be hosted on username.github.io/reponame/. pretty much the same

really just no excuse to NOT make a dedicated page for your project

Imo that is why if you link to something hosted on github, instead of linking to the repository main page, you should just link to github.com/foo/bar/releases/latest, which will point them to where they can download the thing right away.

i didn't crop it out as much as my screen did. i had to scroll down to see this on my standard hd computer screen. nevertheless i had no clue to look for a releases button or tab so i didn't figure this in the post

gah sorry i meant to say i agree that it should be much more prominent, but i forgot to add that part. yeah

(i also think that software that is actually ready for other people to use should have a real website, with a download button, and not just a gitbub, but....)

I... Kinda hate to be that person, but, I mean, that... Is kind of what github implies. The source control site. The place that has the code. Of the thing.

The problem is github is made for hosting code, not software, and people keep using it like a home page for their projects. A slightly better solution would be for the people doing that to link directly to the releases page since it's at least kind of navigable from there, but users should not be directed to github unless they're trying to look at code.

Hell, slap something together on github pages and link to that instead if one must. Then you can have an actual home page without any other service getting involved.

i don't think you can blame devs for using github like its sourceforge considering the fact that it's essentially sourceforge wearing a jaunty hat and always was. sourceforge had this ui problem solved over 20 years ago and it's on github for unsolving it, imo.

i do agree with you here, especially since they started packing in shitware without the devs consent but the big point i was making is 'github is only for code not using the code' is kind of a pathetic mewling response when it was actually done properly decades prior by something that is essentially the same, to the extent that github pages are basically just a remake of sourceforge project homepages (as opposed to the sourceforge-generated project pages)

it's like saying a doom clone fundamentally isn't designed to let you swap guns, only using the last gun you got until you run out of ammo and get swapped back to a previous gun

I used to build Linux kernels because you had to back then and that was before we even had "distributions" and also everything you compiled had been written on a Sun back then so you had to mess around with the #includes and stuff to build on pre-version-1 linux and so even though I know darn well you can download stuff from Github every single fucking time I'm like...what the fuck do I click on????

in reply to @fwankie's post:

I'm certain nobody actually knows how to use GitHub. Anyone who claims they know is faking it to sound like a tech guru and secretly has a bunch of forks they created on accident and just commits directly to master.
I had a college professor explain the site to me as part of a course in web development, and I still get tripped up by it.

There was some video floating around out there recommending using github as a general file storage platform and the comments were flooded with "yeah even people who use github famously don't know how to use it, try getting non technical admins to understand this".