Yesterday I gave out some JABBA awards and one recipient was a tool called HEALER. I found it disappointing that the webpage that hosts the HEALER software contains nothing but the raw C++ files (I also found it strange that none of the filenames contain the word 'HEALER'). This is what you would see if you go to the download page:

Today, Mick Watson alerted me to a piece of software called ScaffoldScaffolder. It's a somewhat unusual name, but I guess it at least avoids any ambiguity about what it does. Out of curiosity I went to the the website to look at the software and this is what I found:

Ah, but maybe there is some documentation inside that tar.gz file? Nope.

At the very least, I think it is good practice to include a README file alongside any software. Developers should remember that some people will end up on these software pages, not from reading the paper, but by following a link somewhere else. The landing page for your software should make the following things clear:

What is this software for?
Who made it?
How do I install it or get it running?
What license is the software distributed under?
What is the version of this software?

The last item can be important for enabling reproducible science. Give your software a version number — the ScaffoldScaffolder included a version number in the file name — or, at the very least, include a release date. Ideally, the landing page for your software should contain even more information:

Where to go for more help, e.g. a supplied PDF/text file, link to online documentation, or instructions about activating help from within the software
Contact email address(es)
Change log

This is something that I feel that reviewers of software-based manuscripts need be thinking about. In turn, this means that it is something that the relevant journals may wish to start including in the guidelines for their reviewers.