Mix Proposal: Change the 'installation' part in the generated README.md to start/end on separate lines

[Wiebe-Marten Wijnja]

When you create a new project using Mix, it generates a standard README.md, which is really useful if you upload the project to an open source Git(Hub) repository.

It looks like this:

# ProjectName

**TODO: Add description**

## Installation

If [available in Hex](https://hex.pm/docs/publish), the package can be installed as:

  1. Add `project_name` to your list of dependencies in `mix.exs`:

    ```elixir

    def deps do

      [{:project_name, "~> 0.1.0"}]

    end

    ```

  2. Ensure `project_name` is started before your application:

    ```elixir

    def application do

      [applications: [:project_name]]

    end

    ```

I would like to propose that this autogenerated readme be altered slightly, to:

# ProjectName

**TODO: Add description**

## Installation

If [available in Hex](https://hex.pm/docs/publish), the package can be installed as:

  1. Add `project_name` to your list of dependencies in `mix.exs`:

    ```elixir

    def deps do

      [
        {:project_name, "~> 0.1.0"}
      ]

    end

    ```

  2. Ensure `project_name` is started before your application:

    ```elixir

    def application do

      [applications: [:project_name]]

    end

    ```

This would make it easier to copy the dependency tuple.

We might want to also change the generated mix.exs, so its dependency list also starts and ends on separate lines (possibly with a comment in-between), to make it easier to add dependencies, and gently push developers to adding new dependencies on separate lines, which would improve readability:

  defp deps do

    [

      # add dependencies here

    ]

  end

Sincerely,

~Wiebe-Marten Wijnja

[José Valim]

We should keep it according to the standard and recommended way of indenting data structures in Elixir today, which is the format currently generated by the README.

José Valim

www.plataformatec.com.br

Skype: jv.ptec

Founder and Director of R&D

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "elixir-lang-core" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to elixir-lang-co...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/elixir-lang-core/c50ae0b2-c476-4dc3-b10b-1fec6771d326%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Henrik N]

Wiebe-Marten,

You're not alone: I've suggested basically the same thing: https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/pull/1007

I think it would be interesting to discuss the merits of the formats, beyond keeping a convention because it's the current convention, but I suspect this doesn't register as a pain point to the core team. (Which is completely reasonable. People are different.)

[Sean Tan]

This is actually the very first thing I do when I generate a new Elixir/Phoenix project, putting things onto their own lines such that individual changes can be better tracked with git.