[mythtv-users] Help with documentation

[Paul Harrison]

On 04/07/15 12:40, Philip Brady wrote:
>
> I have taken so much from this community that I feel honour bound to 
> contribute so please include me. I have been chipping away at API 
> pages but it’s been slow and it is a bit of a moving target!
>

Thanks for your interest any contribution is always welcome.

> A few observations:
>
> 1.  We need a high level link for budding authors on ‘how to generate 
> a wiki page’.  I have generated a few pages but cannot for the life of 
> me remember how I did it. Where is that page about sandboxes etc?
>

I'm not a wiki guru but from what I recall you just type the URL of the 
page you want to create in your browser and if it doesn't already exist 
you are given the option to edit it. For example say you want to create 
a page called 'Test Page' you would have to go to page 
'https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Test Page' the space will turn into a '_' IIRC.

> 2. There are a large number of interesting pages in the wiki which are 
> not accessible by following links. The indexing depends upon category 
> tags at the end of the document but unfortunately these do not get 
> updated in the parent page unless that is opened and re-saved.  
> Permissions don’t always allow that. I think it’s exacerbated by local 
> caching or maybe whether the author is logged in.  He/she sees the 
> parent updated but nobody else does.    Can that be automated or 
> documented?   If there is there a way of listing those and going 
> through them (and also the 'wanted' pages) as a 'start from the 
> bottom' approach?
>

Sorry don't know the answer to that. Hopefully some wiki guru will step in.

> 3. What’s a good mechanism for authors and developers to communicate?  
> A new group under https://forum.mythtv.org/ perhaps? How do developers 
> communicate?
>

The devs usually communicate in the #mythtv IRC channel on freenode. 
Most keep an eye on the mythtv-dev mailing list and the forum. Only the 
brave or crazy ones venture into the users mailing list though. I'll let 
you decide which one I am :)

> 4. I have often thought that some of the pages describe a lot of work 
> done by some dedicated contributors and that there is something very 
> valuable there.  Unfortunately, it’s often very difficult to work out 
> what it does. The commercial world I full of ‘it brings you happiness' 
> but does not say how and Mythtv is sometimes the opposite – ‘here is 
> the technical’ but no ‘what it does’.  Sorting that may need 
> considerable tact!
>
> 5. I’ve seen a few pages where I recognise a shortcoming and/or know 
> that it’s wrong but don’t know how to improve it.   Is there a 
> mechanism for asking the author of that page to review it?
>

Each page has a talk section that you can ask questions or offer advice. 
Whether the page author will see it or take note is another question but 
there is an option to be notified of changes to pages via email that 
every users can set up.


> 6.  A bit of an aside:  I read these discussions on Gossamer threads 
> but respond via hotmail. Matching the two is not always easy, 
> especially if I have had a hotmail tidy-up. Is there a more intuitive 
> interface?
>

If you ask 6 different people you will likely get 6 different answers :) 
I just use a grown up mail program (thunderbird) and set up proper 
filters to sort everything into a usable order. I also mirror everything 
to gmail which I use to keep up to date on my android mobile.
>
> Regards
>
> Phil
>
>

Paul H.