Last Updated: 2024-11-21

Do not follow a README step-by-step without having read every heading first for an overview.

I wanted to get Homestead (virtual machine system for Vagrant) working for developing Project S, so I started following (and documenting) the installation instructions as I went about actually executing them. The addition of writing down what I was doing added 50% to the time it took.

I found out later that the initial part of docs - the part I was following - assumed I wanted something I didn't - i.e. that I wanted a general Homestead installation that worked for every PHP project not just one limited to the project I was working on. However, half way down the entire README, there was a sub-heading about setting things up just in the project folder rather than system-wide, which was a much better fit for me. I changed course.

And so I had to start again basically. It would have been faster to go the correct route from the start. And I'd have been able to know that if I read in outline before doing.