Get the README to a state anyone unfamiliar with the project can read it and understand how to use the app

[KadeMorton]

Currently the README seems very dependent on assumed knowledge as it has only been Roo and myself working on the project, but now we need to get it to a state anyone can read it and understand how to use the Aletheia app.

[bakersemail]

I have to say I'm really in favour of this. I have tried getting this project going for quite a while by trying various platforms of Linux (Ubuntu flavours, Centos) without any luck. Can't get past the steps in the readme file to get this building/installing.

Some screenshots of what the app looks like, with some basic usage tutorials, would also be beneficial.

[KadeMorton]

Hi @bakersemail you are right on all points, this is one of our priorities at the moment. Mozilla is putting on an event called the Global Sprint https://mozilla.github.io/global-sprint/ where people can come along and work on Aletheia, we have this flagged as a good beginner issue to see if we can get any traction on this issue with new contributors.

If you have time, do you think you could run through step by step, command by command what you've done? Would be great for our developer/technical writer to see how people are interpreting our documentation, find the gaps and redraft.

[bakersemail]

Hi Kade,

I'm at work at the moment, but from memory: The steps I take are really just straight from the README file. I clone the project locally, then run:

• sudo apt install nodejs (usually works)
• sudo apt-get install software-properties-common (usually works)
• sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ethereum/ethereum (often fails with failing to get the key, though I recently was able to have it add last night)
• sudo apt-get update (always works)
• sudo apt-get install ethereum -Y (always fails, need to make that a lower case y. When I made it lower, it still never installs)
• sudo snap install ipfs (doesn't work, even when I install snap from apt-get beforehand).
• npm install -g electron (never works)

Sorry I don't have the specific error messages on me at the moment. Though this should be easily replicated with a recent fresh install of a Ubuntu such as Xubuntu 16 which I tried last night.

Perhaps a shell install script that contains these commands would be useful. Or a docker + setup script, though from memory this was to be a native desktop client? Hard for me to know what this application really is from the readme and website content that's currently provided. A bit more specifics in the documentation would help people determine whether they want to try this out on their computer or not.

Whether to expect a dropbox like desktop application, or a web service running on their server, etc.

[KadeMorton]

@bakersemail just letting you know our dev is working through this as part of getting Aletheia ready for the Sprint, hopefully will have a resolution soon.

[roo2]

Hey @bakersemail thanks a lot for running through the install on ubuntu and reporting those issues!

I've made a lot of updates to the readme and hopefully have fixed all of the errors that you found. I've also pulled the dependencies installation into a script. I've tested it locally only (on my already set up machine, ubuntu 16.10)

We're still very much in development and are trying to get the proof of concept out. But overall it will run as a desktop application, so far we can only run it locally which isn't useful as an end user but hope to get a live test network up soon.

[bakersemail]

Minor type-o. README has ubuntu-install.sh as the script, but it looks like it's actually install-ubuntu.sh.

[KadeMorton]

I've amended the typo. @bakersemail were you able to get the app running?

[KadeMorton]

We have confirmed that people have installed the app based on readme

[bakersemail]

Yes, I was excited to see it starting up.

[KadeMorton]

@bakersemail wait until the MVP is done, there will be a bunch of us over the moon at that!