News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Ask HN: How do I improve boring README page? by Jugurtha on Monday March 22, 2021 @09:17AM (#26540342)
While I have you here, would you give a quick feedback on this: https://big-mama-tech.gitlab.io/bmc/

Do you understand what it does?

Re:Ask HN: How do I improve boring README page? by TeMPOraL on Monday March 22, 2021 @12:11PM (#26542802)
I see it's a specialized library. Since I don't do much Python and never worked with modern ML, it's not very illuminating to me. That's fine, as long as the page quickly makes people like me realize this project is not for them, but stays informative for the target audience.

Good job on putting a code sample early, and adding ASCIInema videos; these are somewhat illuminating even for a person like me, who doesn't know anything about the ecosystem.

Here's what I would improve:

- Fill in the "Introduction" page; right now it's empty.

- Put appropriate links under first mention of "MinIO", "mc" and "micro" - to make it that much easier for people to fill the missing context.

- Is that Python 2 or Python 3 library? Or it works on both? ASCIInema below suggests Python 3, but that's too far down. I'd put the number(s) in the first sentence anyway.

- Where do I get it from and how? What dependencies does it require?

Re:Ask HN: How do I improve boring README page? by Jugurtha on Monday March 22, 2021 @05:04PM (#26547024)
Thank you for these pointers. I agree. It's one of those tools that, if you have that problem, you know exactly why you need it.

This solves this issue: https://github.com/minio/minio-py/issues/829. MinIO is an S3 compatible object storage software. https://min.io/

Thanks again. I'll improve the documentation.

Re:Ask HN: How do I improve boring README page? by Jugurtha on Saturday March 27, 2021 @04:03PM (#26605137)
Done. Clarified a few things without going into infinite regress. Pushed the commits, the docs should auto update after the CI/CD job terminates.

Thanks for the pointers again.

Re:Ask HN: How do I improve boring README page? by dale_glass on Monday March 22, 2021 @10:00AM (#26540865)
No clue here either.

My takeway is that it's an extremely specialized piece of software, only of any use to people already familiar with whatever mc and minio are, who hopefully find that explanatory enough.

I think this sort of thing is okay if you're targeting very specialized uses. But it is almost definitely too obscure if a newcomer to the field could have an use for it, without yet knowing what tools are used in that specific area.

Re:Ask HN: How do I improve boring README page? by Jugurtha on Monday March 22, 2021 @05:15PM (#26547205)
Thank you for the reply. More information in the reply above[0]

- [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26547179

Re:Ask HN: How do I improve boring README page? by SomeHacker44 on Monday March 22, 2021 @09:26AM (#26540451)
> bmc is a Python wrapper for MinIO’s command line interface mc and minio. MinIO has a useful client library which unfortunately lacks administrative capabilities, such as adding users and hosts, which we need to do for the iko machine learning platform.

No. But I also do not know what MinIO is, nor mc, minio or iko.

It also does not say why it is called bmc.

Re:Ask HN: How do I improve boring README page? by Jugurtha on Monday March 22, 2021 @05:14PM (#26547179)
>No. But I also do not know what MinIO is, nor mc, minio or iko.

MinIO is an S3 compatible-ish object storage. `mc` and `minio` are command line interfaces to administer it and launch the server. The project has a Python library that invokes the server to manipulate buckets and objects for specific credentials, but lacks the administrative capabilities that `mc` has, such as adding "S3" policies and managing "users", and cannot launch servers as `minio` does. The library is a "thin wrapper" that makes it possible to manage policies and users with Python.

>It also does not say why it is called bmc.

What does IBM stand for? Nothing. It just sounds professional /s :) [0]

Joking aside, the library is to expose a Python API to a binary named `mc`. The `b` stands for BIGmama Technology. `bmc`

- [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb0sDIuEf_A

Re:Ask HN: How do I improve boring README page? by gitgud on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @02:52AM (#26551854)
Looks pretty good, as others have mentioned it's highly specialised. Seems to be a wrapper for a cli tool named MinIO.

One thing to improve it would be to link the MinIO project at the beginning. A simple hyperlink in the intro will do!