My latest port I have worked on for Ravenports, has been a good exercise in the importance of reading documentation. Those who have been in the UNIX/UNIX-like world long enough should know this, but it is always important to stress. Especially as we ‘RTFM’ people who ask questions, which often turns people off. If you are someone who is rather new to the UNIX/Linux world and fear being told ‘RTFM,’ don’t. You wouldn’t be the first and your not gonna be the last. Most of us have been there and have gotten told us that on some topic. The importance is to stress that, sometimes the answers are right there at your fingertips and to exhaust them. People have put tons of effort into documentation, use it! It is honestly one of the best parts of FOSS.

One more important note on reading the documentation. Docs are not perfect! If you have read the docs, don’t get it and someone explains it then it clicks, SPEAK UP! If the answer was in the docs and you just didn’t understand, say something or else the documentation will not get better for the people after you.

The latest port I have been working on is rgbds. It is a toolchain for effectively writing programs for the Gameboy and Gameboy color. This port was a little tricky, but with reading the documentation, I was able to tease out some finer details to make the port happen.