Documentation Team?

matthew180 · Post by **matthew180** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 5:46 pm

Greetings,

Is there anyone currently working on shaping up the PB docs? If so, who do I talk to about helping? If not, who should I submit documentation to?

Thanks,
Matthew

tinman · Post by **tinman** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 10:10 pm

yes.
fred.
fred.

matthew180 · Post by **matthew180** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 11:13 pm

Well, I emailed Fred about it and have not heard anything yet, so I assume he's probably too busy to have something else put on his plate.... I was hoping that maybe there was already an established group for updating the docs so I could submit my additions/correction while they are still fresh in my head.

I'd hate to duplicate work, but if I don't hear something official, I'll probably start my own docs. But it sure would be nice to be able to get information direct from the source so I can be sure what I write is 100% accurate.

Matthew

PB · Post by PB » Tue Jul 01, 2003 12:31 am

> it sure would be nice to be able to get information direct from the source

http://cvs.purebasic.com/

matthew180 · Post by **matthew180** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 1:54 am

Thanks for the link, but I don't see any information that would help write accurate documentation, i.e. the source of the PB functions themselves. However, when I said "it sure would be nice to get information direct from the source", I was actually referring to Fred as the source, not the source code of PB. Since PB is a "for profit" product, I would not expect the source to be generally available.

However, it would be nice to have a few registered users (people who have paid for PB) who have read perms on the PB src tree and commit perms on the docs. That way the docs could get updated faster than when Fred can finally get around to it, and they would be accurate as well. I've already volunteered to help with the English docs, but I have not heard a peep from Fred and company... So we'll wait and see I guess.

Matthew

Post by **Fred** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 9:06 am

Sorry for the delay, I was off the whole week-end (including monday

). About your proposal, I will of course let you help, as it's always welcome. There is a private mailing list and a CVS server so you can easily ask for help/information to other users which already use it for month (tinman, freak etc..). I will not give access to the PB source tree only to makes docs, I don't know why you need it: internal behaviour is no use to write them. I will send you an email tonight

tinman · Post by **tinman** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 1:52 pm

Fred wrote:makes docs, I don't know why you need it: internal behaviour is no use to write them. I will send you an email tonight :)

It is useful to be able to ask how functions work and get an answer (I thinnk this is what Mathew100 was looking for). It doesn't always happen on the CVS list though ;)

Post by **Fred** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 1:54 pm

tinman wrote:It doesn't always happen on the CVS list though

Hmmmmmmm

matthew180 · Post by **matthew180** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 5:11 pm

Fred wrote: I will not give access to the PB source tree only to makes docs, I don't know why you need it: internal behaviour is no use to write them. I will send you an email tonight

As Tinman said, it helps verify the docs. Of course being able to ask you directly is the alternative, but that means bothering you more than might be necessary for a simple clarification. Again, I really didn't expect read access the to PB source, and it's not my intent to get such access, I just want to write accurate docs.

An example, the ReadData() function, it returns the number of bytes read from the file, however, the docs do not say that! The only way I know that is because I saw an example that used a return value from ReadData(). If I was writing docs for that function, the only way I could possibly know that it returns a value would be: 1. Ask you, 2. Try it out of the blue, 3. Be able to see the ReadData() source. The problem with #2 is that I can only guess what some return values might be, like maybe a -1 that means an error occured, etc.

Also, I found a bug in ReadString()... I'll go see if there is a proper place to report that.

Matthew

Karbon · Post by **Karbon** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 6:23 pm

Hey Matt, glad to see you FINALLY are on the forums

I'm helping too - lets get together soon and I can compile some of the stuff I already have with yours..

Post by **Andre** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 9:55 pm

As I'm also working on the docs (mainly german ones) I would really suggest to join the cvs team (Fred will tell you the login, I think). With the help of WinCVS you can easily write your own improvements e.g. in the library descriptions and the CVS system automatically merges them into the existing docs tree. And on the cvs mailing list you can also get help...

Karbon · Post by **Karbon** » Thu Jul 03, 2003 4:00 pm

Ok, so how does one get access to the private mailing list and CVS server to do some documentation work?

Several emails to key personel have gone unanswered...

No serious rush, I'd just like to get started ASAP as I already have some stuff I'd like to commit.

Post by **Andre** » Thu Jul 03, 2003 9:48 pm

Karbon wrote:Ok, so how does one get access to the private mailing list and CVS server to do some documentation work?

Several emails to key personel have gone unanswered...

Fred ?