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Wolfram is so rapidly evolving its extension technologies, that it's hard to figure out how to meaningfully contribute to the community. Over the years we've seen: Applications, Packages/Paclets and now ResourceFunctions. There are also several ways to install the above. All have their pros and cons, but I really enjoyed installing Paclets directly from github repos.

A particularly nice example for the ForScience paclet. However recently I've noticed that one of it's functions (PlotGrid)has been since moved into Wolfram Repositories. It has also been updated, but the versioning has a divergent form. Now, as I'm developing my own Paclet, I'd like to not only use the PlotGrid function inside my Paclet, but before doing that I'd like to improve it.

But how do I improve/fork a ResourceFunction? Does Wolfram Repository have a git backend to which one could do a Pull Request? And finally, how do I the current, editable state of the ResourceFunction, other than the source notebook file? I thought, that the whole idea was to move towards simple versioning-capable text scripts (.wl) like Paclets do, and not notebook (.nb) files.

Perhaps one should use GitLink to somehow sync local paclets and remotes both ways? I've seen this one before, but never tried.

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  • $\begingroup$ "Applications, Packages/Paclets and now ResourceFunction's." you forgot the original one Wolfram demonstration project ! Over 12,000 demos. $\endgroup$
    – Nasser
    Mar 11 at 12:25
  • $\begingroup$ "But how do I improve/fork a ResourceFunction?" I think for this to happen they need to be at github? otherwise not practical to do this now. You could always edit one and submit the new version with new name? If the changes are significant may be WRI will accept the new version with the new name. $\endgroup$
    – Nasser
    Mar 11 at 12:26
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    $\begingroup$ I think commercial companies like Wolfram and Maplesoft are not used to these open source development setup and like to keep everything under their central control to manage it. btw, Maple has something similar to Wolfram called application center where people submit their work (not as nice looking or easy to navigate as Wolfram's site, but content is good also there). It also has no connection to github or gitlab. So same issue happens there. $\endgroup$
    – Nasser
    Mar 11 at 12:42
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    $\begingroup$ At the bottom of a page in the Function Repository there is a link to "Send a message about this function". The linked form states, "The Wolfram Function Repository is a community-maintained resource. Use this form to make suggestions for improvement and to report bugs. Feel free to include revised code or examples in a notebook." $\endgroup$
    – Bob Hanlon
    Mar 11 at 16:16
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    $\begingroup$ Also note that in the weekly "Wolfram Function Repository Digest" in addition to a section for new content in the repository, it has a section for updated content. $\endgroup$
    – Bob Hanlon
    Mar 11 at 20:56

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