What is this?

[michaelpj]

I got here via an issue in the issue tracker, and I'm just recording my confusion in case it's helpful for you.

I read the README, and I have no idea what this is.

• Is it an organization? Is it people doing things? Who are the people, what are they doing?
• Is it a piece of software? The headline ("improving all Haskell's programmer interfaces") initially made me think that maybe it was, but there's no code and that doesn't seem to fit.
• Is it an issue tracker for DevX issues in the ecosystem? That's my best guess, but I don't really know. If it is, who's looking at them? Should I raise things here? Why here and not in the relevant projects?
• Why is it named after a fish?

I'm sure it's laudable, whatever it is :)

[tomjaguarpaw]

Hello Michael, this a worthwhile question. I will try to help resolve your confusion. Perhaps then you can suggest how I could make the README clearer.

Tilapia is a "project" in the sense that it is a place (specifically, a GitHub repository) for people to congregate who share a particular goal, that is, improving "all Haskell's programmer interfaces". I'm not sure I can give a better explanation of what I mean by "all programmer interfaces" than the examples written in the README but I suppose it's a very similar notion to "developer experience".

Is it an organization? Is it people doing things? Who are the people, what are they doing?

It's only an organization in the sense that it's a loose collection of people doing things with some vague common purpose in mind. It has no existence as an organisation beyond this GitHub repository. The people are me, who founded the project, and anyone else who stumbles over the project and wants to participate. I have never formally called for collaborators. Instead I hope that people will stumble across it (like you did) and just join in if they feel like it. To see what we are doing you can look at the resolved issues. Here is a somewhat arbitrary selection:

• Explain correspondence between Data.Map.alter and Data.Map.adjust #4
• Outdated page about sandboxes #45
• Cabal FAQ outdated #47
• http://h2.jaguarpaw.co.uk/posts/improving-the-typed-process-documentation/

Is it a piece of software? The headline ("improving all Haskell's programmer interfaces") initially made me think that maybe it was, but there's no code and that doesn't seem to fit.

It's not a particular piece of software but "working on Tilapia" might involve submitting contributions to some piece of software.

Is it an issue tracker for DevX issues in the ecosystem? That's my best guess, but I don't really know.

The Tilapia issue tracker is definitely used for that, yes. If people are experiencing DevX issues and they don't know where to get help then they are welcome to post about them here. That's an emergent behaviour of Tilapia. I don't think anyone tried to get that to happen!

If it is, who's looking at them?

Me, and other people who randomly want to participate. For example @goldfirere started posting issues here and @jneira started answering them.

Should I raise things here?

If you want to. I can't promise that I, or anyone, will be able to do anything about them, but I do promise that I will read them, care about them, and take them into account in my efforts to improve all programming interfaces.

Why here and not in the relevant projects?

No reason, except if you want a response like I describe above, and are not getting it from the relevant projects.

Why is it named after a fish?

Tilapia stands for "Today I learned All Programmer Interfaces can be Approachable". I name most things after fish (e.g. https://github.com/tomjaguarpaw/haskell-opaleye/) in honour of Haddock.