Keeping the momentum post-Hackathon + introducing Discussions!

[seehorne]

Hello!

As many of you here know, ProgramAT was recently at the Github Open Source Assistive Technology Hackathon! This was a fantastic event, which resulted in the addition of several new contributors (@josefdc, @jage9, @Oliver2213, @ruotongg, @hhizzuk), great discussion, and several updates to ProgramAT. These updates include:

• A brand new Android build! We are now officially multiplatform!!
• Support for Claude code as an alternative agent for tool generation
• In-app model choice selection (i.e. setting which LLM tools will use without needing to modify the backend)
• Easier server setup with uv
• Assorted bug fixes for both android and iOS
• New tools!

We are very pleased with this progress and hope to keep up the momentum, and hope to use Discussions as a mechanism to do this!

What are discussions?

Discussions are a collaborative forum space for Github projects like ours! We can use them to facilitate community conversations, work through new ideas, and communicate with each other in ways issues and PRs alone don't allow.

Why are we using discussions?

At the Hackathon, we received requests for a space for these purposes. Some projects use a Slack or Discord server for these purposes, which we would consider doing eventually. However, as we are just starting, we opted for Discussions for now to keep the conversation more readily linked to where the project itself is, to support newer collaborators and contributors in jumping right in!

Ways to keep up the momentum!

Discussion of discussions aside, we hope you are interested in keeping up the momentum if you've already joined, or joining us on this journey if you have not. With that in mind, we are using this first Discussions post to outline some ways this could look.

Way 1: Making and keeping an eye on issues!

We made a lot of progress at the Hackathon, but we weren't able to cover everything (:

We still have some remaining issues from the Hackathon itself, and new issues will come up as we continue to work. If you are looking for a place to start, checking out the currently open issues is a great first step. Further, if there is something you want to see from ProgramAT that isn't covered yet (e.g. there was interest at the Hackathon for expanding ProgramAT's language support), raising an issue is a great way to get going on that. If you want to start a conversation around a new idea, you can utilize Discussions for this too!

Way 2: Raising PRs!

Aside from raising issues to disseminate ideas, you can also raise pull requests to share your solutions to issues. To do this, fork the repository, implement your solution, and then file an upstream pull request. We are so excited to see what you come up with!

Way 3: Reviewing PRs!

In addition to making and addressing issues, our community is made better by the collective review of each other's work. This is a necessary step to getting changes merged upstream, and helps ProgramAT flourish. For most contributions, you can review here on the Github website, the same way you would for any PR on any repo. For new visual assistive tools, you can also review from the app, by switching to review mode. To leave any review, however, you first need to become a contributor in the role sense, which can be done by following the instructions in #44

Way 4: Using the app!

Beyond adding new functionality to the codebase, if it is appropriate to your situation, you can also help carry the momentum forward by using ProgramAT for it's central purpose: building custom tools! Whether you treat these as personal, or choose to merge some of your favorites upstream, actual app usage is where the real impact of ProgramAT will come from.

Way 5: Spreading the word!

If you know anyone who would be interested in using ProgramAT and/or contributing to ProgramAT, send them our way by providing the link to the repository. We are always open to new users and contributors! The Hackathon was a great start to this, but we hope it was not the end!

Thank you so much for all the engagement so far, we look forward to the growth of ProgramAT and your role in it!!