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Re: Attacking the documentation monster


From: Willow Liquorice
Subject: Re: Attacking the documentation monster
Date: Tue, 24 May 2022 21:38:24 +0100
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/91.9.1

Ah, good. The doxygen site's showing the correct version number now.

Another point in favour of integrating source docs into the handbook: I think the docs for libgnunetutil and other documentation for libraries could really benefit from it, as they are rather skeletal and the doxygen site isn't the most intuitively organised thing in the world (are there ways to improve that?).

I have some ideas for how the GNUnet documentation can be radically reorganised, to make it more concise, taking after Python's documentation:
        * docs.gnunet.org (Everything in one place!)
                * Installation and setup
(www/Install, Tutorial install, and Handbook install sections, configuration sections from handbook and tutorial)
                * User's Manual
                        (Using GNUnet, www/Use)
                * Developer's Manual
(rest of Tutorial, GNUnet Developer Handbook, GNUnet Contributor's Handbook)
                * REST API documentation
                * Doxygen-generated source docs
                * Living Standards Documents
                * Bibliography
                
* History/License of GNUnet (could be split, not quite as entangled as for Python)
                * Contributing to docs
                * Glossary
(www/Glossary, allow us to reference it from the docs, and could also incorporate the Key Concepts section of the handbook)
                

I've knocked together a mockup with a few currently half-finished transcriptions from the handbook's .texi files, and a logo I yanked from the website source. The TeXinfo is a lot more rough around the edges as I haven't done as much configuration work for it.

I've also gone through the longest of the Handbook chapters by far, the entire Developer's Handbook, and broken it apart by section. These smaller .texi files occupy first-draft positions in the dev handbook's directory tree. I haven't read every section in detail, so a few of these sections may be in odd places. I have done similar things for the preface and the

What needs to be done so that I can push this to origin and everyone can see it? I think the work I've done so far is a bit too much for a patch.

When that does happen, there are a few items of note in the HTML, that we might find useful:
        * Search bar! Haven't tried it yet, but should be useful.
* A to-do list can be generated from reST directives in the source, have a look at it in the contributing section!

As an aside, *does anyone know of any tools to convert TeXinfo to reST*? This migration is going to be much smoother if there are.

As a more tangential aside: what/who is the REST API for a GNUnet component for?

I hope this isn't too much to spring on you at once.

- Willow

On 24/05/2022 18:01, Christian Grothoff wrote:
The doxygen configuration file in Git just had an ancient version number. I've fixed that now. The rest was up-to-date ;-).

-Christian

On 5/23/22 16:24, Willow Liquorice wrote:
Just look at https://docs.gnunet.org/doxygen/html/index.html and you'll
see what I mean.

- Willow

On 23/05/2022 15:23, Christian Grothoff wrote:
I cannot even find a version number on https://docs.gnunet.org/, so that's likely not what you are refering to. So where exactly are you looking to find documentation for 0.11.x? Likely some code to update some location is not working (or was never written, and someone put something out manually...).

-Christian

On 5/23/22 16:16, Willow Liquorice wrote:
Alright, doc/sphinx it is.

The handbook is already intended for two wildly different audiences, what with being both a user's and developer's manual. Having the source code documentation in one place (and possibly better organised) might make it easier to work with, and help keep the Developer's Manual up-to-date.

On another note, are the online source docs even up to date? The indicated version on them is 0.11.x, which is several years gone at this point.

Best wishes,
     Willow

On 23/05/2022 08:39, Christian Grothoff wrote:
On 5/23/22 00:57, Willow Liquorice wrote:
Hello again,

Thanks for the info, good to hear that I've got most of it. Setting up a branch in my local GNUnet repository, to start experimenting with Sphinx, as I write this. Seeing as there's some experience with the software in the project already, where would be the most sensible place to put the root directory? My thinking is either the repository root or the doc folder.

Definitively doc/, I think doc/sphinx/ would be good.

Would it be sensible to migrate to Sphinx throughout the whole GNUnet repository? Breathe (https://www.breathe-doc.org/) could very well make the transition easy, as I think it would allow us to read the Doxygen comments that are already present in the source code.

I'm not sure importing the Doxygen makes sense, that's very different from the main handbook/tutorial/man-pages both in terms of style and audience.

my 2 cents

Christian

Best wishes,

     Willow Liquorice

On 22/05/2022 22:27, Christian Grothoff wrote:
Hi Willow,

We've been using RST/Sphinx for the GNU Taler documentation, and it can generate reasonable TeXinfo. From that experience, I'm not against converting the existing documentation to RST.

As far as finding the documentation, I think you found most of it, except maybe the RFC-style specs at https://lsd.gnunet.org/.

The handbook is supposed to cover things in depth, with different chapters for installation (for the various platforms), users (by application, explaining what each application can do and how to use it) and developers (by subsystem, explaining how each subsystem is supposed to work). The man-pages are supposed to be for the day-to-day usage when someone wants to quickly look up command-line options. The doxygen is for function-level documentation for developers-only.  The tutorial is for newbie-developers, and is a bit dated. Finally, the LSDs are in-depth protocol descriptions for those wanting to do interoperable (re)implementations.

I hope that answers your questions and look forward to you improving the documentation!

Happy hacking!

Christian

On 5/20/22 02:21, Willow Liquorice wrote:
I've got some free time on my hands now, and I gave some thought to improving the readability of the HTML documentation on the website (which is what the average prospective GNUnet dev is going to look at). Read the Docs and friends set the standard in this regard. Having the contents in a sidebar for easy access (regardless of your location) would be far more convenient than what's currently available.

I understand that TeXinfo's HTML generation is a bit simplistic in the name of compatibility, which, while not a bad thing, results in a subpar reading experience for the average dev who will, in all likelihood, be reading the docs on a very capable modern browser.

While thinking about how to improve things with TeXinfo, it occurred to me that, instead of trying to emulate the experience of using Read the Docs, one could just use Read the Docs! It's Free Software, after all. I haven't looked into it too deeply, but if the .texi sources are converted to the reStructuredText that it accepts, a migration (or use of a similar platform) might be worth considering. What do the people here think?

If I'm going to dedicate time to restructuring GNUnet's docs, I need to know where it all is. I've found four strands of docs in the repository (Handbook, Tutorial, Doxygen, and man pages), could someone give me a run-down of the state they're in, how they relate to one another, and what they're supposed to be for? Is that everything?

Thanks,
     Willow

On 01/03/2022 22:52, Christian Grothoff wrote:
Spam killed this. We already constantly have to delete 'bug reports'
from the Web that were submitted as link spam. A wiki will drain
resources to keep the spammers out, and at the same time experience says
the contributions will be low quality (it has been tried).

If someone really is capable and invests time into contributing to
documentation, they can pick up Git and send patches.

On 3/1/22 11:12 PM, madmurphy wrote:
I don't know if this will be a popular proposal, but I really believe that setting up a self-hosted Wiki could be a very good choice. No complicate git clone, no complaints, just read/edit what you need, and
distributed responsibilities about its design and direction.

My two cents








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