# Tech writer seeks to build portfolio with a ruby project **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [May 27, 2008, 10:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tech-writer-seeks-to-build-portfolio-with-a-ruby-project/138802 "2008-05-27T22:02:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dreamwave)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 10:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tech-writer-seeks-to-build-portfolio-with-a-ruby-project/138802/1 "2008-05-27T22:02:28Z")
Hi everyone, I’m looking to build my technical writing portfolio by doing some API documentation. Could someone throw out some ruby projects that I could investigate and offer my services to? I have some programming background, but my expertise is writing. Michael L. ---
**Author:** ![dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dreamwave)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tech-writer-seeks-to-build-portfolio-with-a-ruby-project/138802/2 "2008-05-27T22:14:52Z")
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Michael L. wrote: | Hi everyone, | I’m looking to build my technical writing portfolio by | doing some API documentation. Could someone throw out some ruby | projects that I could investigate and offer my services to? I have some | programming background, but my expertise is writing. Ruby’s STDLIB could use some documentation love. 🙂 [http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/](http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/) * * * Phillip G. Twitter: [twitter.com/cynicalryan](http://twitter.com/cynicalryan) Blog: [http://justarubyist.blogspot.com](http://justarubyist.blogspot.com) Each module should do one thing well. ~ - The Elements of Programming Style (Kernighan & Plaugher) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.8 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - [http://enigmail.mozdev.org](http://enigmail.mozdev.org) iEYEARECAAYFAkg8a6IACgkQbtAgaoJTgL+SPACggIFVnNtMk49vHqTKxca9UQHw AHcAoKFPFbdtY+lqlZgPwPZMb7kYhPvA =H8dF -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ---
**Author:** ![dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dreamwave)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 2:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tech-writer-seeks-to-build-portfolio-with-a-ruby-project/138802/3 "2008-05-28T02:14:58Z")
Michael L. wrote: > Hi everyone, > I’m looking to build my technical writing portfolio by > doing some API documentation. Could someone throw out some ruby > projects that I could investigate and offer my services to? I have some > programming background, but my expertise is writing. > > Michael L. Funny you should ask … a few weeks back, Gregory B. was soliciting ideas for his “Ruby Mendicant” project, and the runner-up to the project he actually chose was to do some documentation on existing projects. So I think there’s a documentation “wish list” floating around from that. ---
**Author:** ![dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dreamwave)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tech-writer-seeks-to-build-portfolio-with-a-ruby-project/138802/4 "2008-05-28T03:44:01Z")
Hi Michael, > I’m looking to build my technical writing portfolio by > doing some API documentation. Could someone throw out some ruby > projects that I could investigate and offer my services to? I have some > programming background, but my expertise is writing. The Dennou Ruby project, a suite of software for geophysical data processing and visualization @[GFD Dennou Ruby Project: GFD Dennou Ruby Project](http://www.gfd-dennou.org/library/ruby/index.htm), would profit from your services greatly! saji – Saji N. Hameed APEC Climate Center +82 51 668 7470 National Pension Corporation Busan Building 12F Yeonsan 2-dong, Yeonje-gu, BUSAN 611705 removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid KOREA ---
**Author:** ![dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dreamwave)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 6:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tech-writer-seeks-to-build-portfolio-with-a-ruby-project/138802/5 "2008-05-29T06:50:44Z")
Can you point me to this wish list? On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 5:11 PM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dreamwave)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 11:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tech-writer-seeks-to-build-portfolio-with-a-ruby-project/138802/6 "2008-05-29T11:40:26Z")
On Wednesday 28 May 2008 23:49:17 Michael L. wrote: > > Michael L. wrote: > > > > > Hi everyone, > > > I’m looking to build my technical writing portfolio by > > > doing some API documentation. Could someone throw out some ruby > > > projects that I could investigate and offer my services to? I have some > > > programming background, but my expertise is writing. I don’t know if it’s been mentioned yet, but Capistrano lacks quite a lot of documentation. I found the code very pleasant to read, but I had to read the code to understand what was going on. > **[CapiFy | Home Page](https://capify.org/)** > > The home page for CapiFy. ---
**Author:** ![dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dreamwave)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2008, 9:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tech-writer-seeks-to-build-portfolio-with-a-ruby-project/138802/7 "2008-06-01T21:46:05Z")
Okay, I’ve decided I want to see what I can do with Ruby’s STDLIB. I wanted to poke around the gdbm source, but for the life of me could not find it. From what I can understand it’s part of the core distribution, but I can’t find a way to get it. The best I’ve been able to do so far is find binaries via netbsd’s pkgsrc. I may decide not to do gdbm first. But what I do want to come away with, is the right way to find any given source I need. Thanks, Michael L. ---
**Author:** ![dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dreamwave)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 10:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tech-writer-seeks-to-build-portfolio-with-a-ruby-project/138802/8 "2008-05-27T22:50:46Z")
Phillip G. wrote: > Ruby’s STDLIB could use some documentation love. 🙂 > > [RDoc Documentation](http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/) Indeed. [http://www.ruby-doc.org/documentation-guidelines.html](http://www.ruby-doc.org/documentation-guidelines.html) – James B. “Inside every large system there’s a small system trying to get out”. - Chet Hendrickson ---
**Author:** ![dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@dreamwave](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dreamwave)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2008, 10:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tech-writer-seeks-to-build-portfolio-with-a-ruby-project/138802/9 "2008-06-01T22:39:42Z")
Michael L. wrote: > Okay, I’ve decided I want to see what I can do with Ruby’s STDLIB. > I wanted to poke around the gdbm source, but for the life of me could not > find it. From what I can understand it’s part of the core distribution, but > I can’t find a way to get it. > The best I’ve been able to do so far is find binaries via netbsd’s pkgsrc. > > I may decide not to do gdbm first. But what I do want to come away with, is > the right way to > find any given source I need. Download and unroll the source tarball. The builtin classes are defined in the top-level directory in source files that are very clearly named. That is, the String library is in string.c, Hash is in hash.c, etc. Ruby-code libraries (i.e. ostruct) are in the lib subdirectory. The ‘gdbm’ library is a C extension, so we go look in the ext subdirectory, where we find a directory named gdbm. In ext/gdbm there is gdbm.c. Voila!