In his blog Yesterday, Stephen Wolfram announced the launch of the Wolfram Function Repository (WFR). While the blog was the official announcement, this repository has been in development for quite some time, with numerous functions already in use hereabouts. So we are,not surprisingly, quite excited to see this now "go live", and I want to introduce it, informally, in the Community forum. I should mention that several Wolfram Community readers are already familiar with this from our live-streamed meetings, and a few have already had functions published there.
The idea is this. You have a function, say something like MyDailyGoTo[str_String,n_Integer], and you think it is really useful for some purpose. You want it to be available to others, you want it to have a documentation page similar to the ones for functions built into the Wolfram Language, you want to have it when you are visiting someplace and forgot to bring your laptop, etc. You can now have all this. In a notebook go to File > New > Repository Item > Function Repository Item. So with four clicks you are off and running. A templated notebook has appeared, with various fields pre-populated e.g. a name (MyFunction) and a descriptor field. There is a Definition section where you replace the prefilled boilerplate with whatever you need to define your function. Fill in the Usage message section. Provide a few examples. You can have options, applications, show possible issues, fill in keywords and Related Symbols (in the Wolfram Language) for improved discoverability, whatever; all of these have fields that can be added to or left alone. The minimum requirement is that there be a usage message and one example.
If you are new to this, you do not yet know what are the style expectations. No big deal, just hit the Style Guidelines button at the top of the notebook and documentation appears. Want to see what an existing contribution looks like? Hit the Open Sample button. Don't know how to format things like the arguments in the Usage section? Heck, nobody knows how to do that (okay, three people know, but their identities are a corporate secret). Hit the Tools button and new bottons, among them Template Input, appear below the main bar. When you think you have something to submit there is the Check button. Hit that and, well, things happen. An automated set of checks might bring up not just missing item or formatting issues, but also a set of possible actions to redress them. Once the notebook looks right and passes the Check criteria, you can see how it will look once published using the Preview button (with the option to see it in a new notebook or in the Wolfram Cloud). When everything looks just so, hit Submit to Repository. There is also a Deploy button, useful for various purposes when one does not want the work to go into the WFR; see the blog for details.
What happens next? The submission goes into a queue for review at our end. We have over 500 published functions and I have been involved in reviews of more than 300 of them (while not as prolific as some colleagues, I also wrote I think 14 of them). First thing we do is see if the name and description make sense. We then check for formatting issues, assess usability, run the examples, have a look at the code, check for related functions, and myriad other things. We even had a couple of "review" sessions live-streamed. (These were not the ordinary reviews insofar as the boss was in charge, and the functions under consideration were ones that were already published. Also, while I do not think we made this clear, we only went over a random selection from among those we ourselves had authored.)
And following a review? If a function is fine on the first go round (possibly after mild editing), it gets published. If it looks like a good idea but needs work (a common outcome, even for those we ourselves write) then a message is sent to the author requesting revisions. We try to give sufficient detail for this. And rest assured, we do not send to external authors things like a particular 'needs revisions' note I received, which began "Danny you're a moron".
Let me say a bit about what is the expectation for submissions to the WFR. We are not terribly rigid here. Functions you find useful in everyday work, or ones that do very particular tasks that are not covered by existing Wolfram Language functions, or... A function can work in a very narrow area, provided it is something that others in that area might find useful. Existing WFR functions hit areas from basic programming language extensions to specialized graphics to STEM to "just for fun" to user interface extensions to, well, functions for working with WFR functions (e.g. a message formatter specialized to the WFR). If we think a submission is too close to existing functionality, we will tell you that (this has happened with a few in-house submissions, though it seems to be quite infrequent). If we think changes are needed, well, I guess I covered that already. Functions need not be generalized to all manner of inputs; we simply ask that they fail gracefully (e.g. not crash) with unexpected ones. As with any curation effort (e.g. like what was done for the Wolfram Demonstrations Project), we will exercise some judgement as to standards. But we are not reviewing at anything like the standards for the Wolfram Language itself.
So now you have a function in the WFR. Or maybe you are using a function in the WFR, whether yours or written by others. Can it be changed out from under you? We have in place a versioning system, which is still itself undergoing revisions. The idea is that things will be cached on your local machine and/or stored to a Cloud account. Revisions can be obtained when wanted, and avoided when not wanted. We expect we will have a hiccup or two as we proceed, but anticipate a smooth process in the not-distant future. Now suppose a function shows problems, or maybe could benefit from extensions: can this be addressed? Again, there is a mechanism for communicating to us and we are also working on facilitating direct communication to authors (when they opt in for this).
To be clear, we expect there might be growing pains. But the benefits of the WFR are rife: we now have a platform for external contributions of myriad functions, and already they are getting used in day to day workflows. I hope Community members will join in this venture, either by using these functions or by contributing some of your own favorites.
