Basic stuff around writing programs

To write a computer program, you need to provide a bunch of other guff that has little to do with the program you are writing.

• Licence
• README
• Build system (ideally an 'hermetic' build system that insulates your build configuration from the surrounding environment)
• Test runner
• Documentation!
  • Something to build docs
  • Something to publish docs
  • API docs
  • Long-form documentation (e.g. how to, design)
  • Change log
• Release process
• Code review system
• Version control
• Web site
• Discussion forum
  • IRC?
  • Mailing list?
• Version numbering
• Coding standards
• Linter to support coding standards
• Continuous integration (ideally something that prevents merging patches that break tests)

Additions from others:

• Somewhere to file bugs (@sil)
• Code of Conduct (@popey)
• Installation instructions (@sil)
• OS-specific packaging
• A name (@puzzlement, Jani Monoses)
  • Make sure people can search for it! (@puzzlement, @froztbyte)
• Forum for announcements (Jani Monoses)
  • Blog?
  • Twitter?
• Landing bot (@bigjools)
  • Something that acts on code review approval by merging, might not be necessary depending on overall setup. (e.g. Github doesn't have "Approve" it just has "Merge").
• A dependency list (Chad MILLER)
  • If you have a hermetic build process, you don't need another one of these
• Instructions / script for running from source (@froztbyte)
  • Remember, plenty of potential users/contributors will be unfamiliar with your language's toolchain! @froztbyte [good call - jml]
  • "./makethisrun --devmode should be able to give me all I need to tweak things. debug logs, warnings of missing packages/tools," @froztbyte

Serious business!

Things that I personally think are optional, but are good ideas, especially if you've got a bit of momentum or you're hiring lawyers.

• Logo / branding
• Contributor agreement (@popey) [jml still doesn't think this is necessary or desirable]
• Release schedule (Bjoern Michaelsen)
• Roadmap (Jani Monoses)
• Documentation style guide