[mythtv] Documentation

[Blammo]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 14:50:08 -0800, Nav Jagpal <nav.jagpal at gmail.com> wrote:
> MythTV has been getting more and more popular. Now when I mention the
> software to someone, they actually know what I'm talking about pretty
> much right away.
> 
> That is why I think a step-by-step document for installing, and
> perhaps even using, MythTV would be a good to get a larger user
> community.
> 
> I know that a lot of us out there have our favourite distros, hardware
> encoders etc.. And the combinations of different types of hardware is
> massive - but what about a document for those non-Linux type people?
> 
> Document that outlines: hardware (video card, encoder card, sound
> card, distro) setup. ?
> 
> For example, I use Debian, and to avoid the whole TV-out hassle, I
> just used the onboard video card and a VGA->PC converter from KWorld
> (<$100 CDN).
> 
> When I went to create my Mythtv box, I had to rumble around the Net
> looking for various sources.. I wish I could have found a document
> that said "Hey.. if you get this sound card, video card, etc.. , which
> will cost you $$ dollars, you can build this box.. And if you have a
> sound card and video card that *just works*, you'll be set too".
> 
> Comments/suggestions?
> 
> 
> On Mon, 7 Feb 2005 18:41:32 -0800, Nav Jagpal <nav.jagpal at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Thanks for all of the documentation related advice.
> >
> > In the next few days I will try to go through existing documentation,
> > take a look at the users mailing list, and take a look at the source
> > code (can someone suggest a starting place for the source?... probably
> > a better for my understanding if I struggle with it anyhow)
> >
> > Before I sit down and start writing any documentation, I'll send a
> > quick outline of what I will be attempting to do, so that I can get
> > some more advice/comments/suggests before starting.
> >
> > Just wanted to send a note so that the people that have already
> > responded know that I didn't send an email and run away.
> >
> > Thanks again
> > --
> > Nav
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 7 Feb 2005 16:13:22 -0800, Brad Templeton
> > <brad+mydev at templetons.com> wrote:
> > > On Mon, Feb 07, 2005 at 09:24:57AM -0500, Daniel Thor Kristjansson wrote:
> > > > On Sun, 6 Feb 2005, Nav Jagpal wrote:
> > > > ]Is there a need for any type of documentation, manuals, etc?
> > > >
> > > > There is a need for developer documentation. Starting with a guide to
> > > > theming and a guide to producing a debug build and a backtrace for bug
> > > > reporting. But we also need an overview of the classes and how they
> > > > interact and something like doxygen for the code itself.
> > >
> > > When I started looking at the code I would have loved to have seen
> > > docs on the scheduler, on the frontend protocol.   Also, significant
> > > sections of the code are uncommented beyond having descriptive symbol
> > > names -- so adding comments to variable names and function names would
> > > be an important part of documenting the classes.
> > >
> > > As for user docs, one start is reading mythtv-users mailing list and
> > > seeing what things people are asking the most questions about.  In some
> > > cases it is undocumented stuff, in other cases it is documented but
> > > they are not finding the documentation.   In the latter case, it's
> > > a challenge to reorganize those docs so that even an idiot can find the
> > > answer to their question.
> > >
> > > There are also many levels of users, and as Mythtv grows in popularity,
> > > you will see more users who need to be walked through things, folks who
> > > are less linux-familiar etc.
> > >
> >
> 
> 
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> mythtv-dev at mythtv.org
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> 
> 


Might not be a bad idea to have a myth-docs email list. That would
facilitate coop development of docs, give you somewhere to post drafts
for review and testing, etc. Some of us get paid to proof other
peoples work, but are terrible at creating our own from scratch.