MDN Learn: Tools and setup

[estelle]

Problem statement

The tools and setup page and subtree are outdated, incomplete, and require constant maintenance if they are to be kept. There are pages that should be removed, while other content topics are indeed useful for people getting started. While some pages do indeed contain still-useful content, any tool or other resource's “How to” pages will always be better on the site for the original resource than docs we create and maintain on MDN.

The reason this section exists is that originally this content was all over the place, so it was moved into one place. Originally Jeremie wrote the learning area based on Mozilla Foundation's web literacy map, but that is no longer active.

As an example, the Learn/Common_questions/Tools_and_setup/What_software_do_I_need has 1691 pageviews. It is ranked 4728/58616. Our choices are to file an issue, create a discussion, file multiple PRs, or even delete the entire directory

Proposed solutions

As there is still important content within these pages, this project proposal suggests reviewing the content, checking what is covered, linking out as appropriate, deleting as much as possible, and even adding new things, like VS code. In the end, we should have a very useful guide, but nothing in the subtree.

Task list

• Update the landing page - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questions/Tools_and_setup
• Go thru every page in the directly and either add a link to that page on the landing page or delete page and link to original resource or delete altogether
  • What software do I need to build a website?
  • How much does it cost to do something on the web?
  • What text editors are available?
  • What are browser developer tools?
  • How do you make sure your website works properly?
  • How do you set up a local testing server?
  • How do you upload files to a web server?
  • How do I use GitHub Pages?
  • How do you host your website on Google App Engine?
  • What tools are available to debug and improve website performance?

• Add new resources as appropriate
• Move useful pages to tools and testing or getting started

Priority assessment

• Effort:
  Probably two weeks - MEDIUM LOW

• Dependencies:
  None - LOW

• Community enablement:

• Momentum:

• Enabling learners:
  This is 100% for learners HIGH

• Enabling professionals:
  Professionals should already know this stuff, but the landing page may end up being a good page for external resources. LOW

• Underrepresented topics / Ethical web:
  Enables people without means to find free resources, so HIGH

• Operational necessities:
  For learners. Not a necessity. LOW

• Addressing needs of the web industry:
  Page rank?

More information

Open Web Docs (OWD) is a non-profit collective funded by corporate and individual donations.

In order for this project to happen, please consider donating to OWD at https://opencollective.com/open-web-docs.
For more information on sponsorship and membership tiers, see https://openwebdocs.org/membership/

More information is available at https://openwebdocs.org/.
For questions, please reach out to florian@openwebdocs.org.