I'm a newbie: please share steps how to make a playlist (reading manual no help)

[Exitao]

LaTeX is also pretty widely used in academic circles.  There's a wealth of information to be found on the internet.  If you want to know what a command does or need to find how to do something in LaTeX it usually doesn't take too much effort to track it down.

I am currently immersed in my own LaTeX work at the moment -- dissertation writing.  But I will certainly contribute time and attention to the manual when time becomes more abundant.

Slightly off-topic to the subject of playlists, but on the topic of editing the wiki:

A wiki on using latex to edit the manual wiki(s) would be in order.

There seems to be a disconnect between coders and users.  The coders presume a level of capability on the part of everyone, predicated on the idea that they could learn to do it if they just stopped being stupid or lazy and just tried to learn.

Unfortunately, most people (like me) have no clue where to start learning and feel intimidated.  Add in that while the coders might not intend it, internet communications are terse by nature, they often appear unkind in their attitudes toward non-programmers.

This causes the project to lose a potentially valuable resource.  You need to make it easier for non-coders to contribute.  And I have read matyr-ish complaints that the coders are a small group with a lot to do, without recompense or sufficient attaboys.  
Well, this is my modest attempt to contribute, despite not knowing how and I'm writing all this because I do appreciate your efforts.


So help us help you:

• Make a wiki explaining how to use your esoteric latex wiki.

 
"It's common in academic circles" doesn't cut it.  I studied Criminology, the only people I ever met who even mentioned Latex were working on a cyclotron.

• Make a wiki explaining how Rockbox is developed and coded.

Follow through from the hows to the how-tos for newbs and n00bz.  You don't have to start your own school, but just point the way and link to information.

Once people can easily start contributing to the wikis, they will make the manuals more accessible.
And people who get turned on to coding will help make your coding for non-coders wiki more accessible.   You may even find the need to create a new forum for people learning to code to help each other, by sharing coding resources - which will, hopelly make their way into the coding for non-coders wiki should they prove good enough. People learning may even start their own resource sites... imagine that!

I know you guys have a lot to do, but I get the feeling that for many, this project is a labour of love, so why no spread the love and help spawn some rockbox love-child coders?

Exitao: ex abundancia cordis

[nls]

• Make a wiki explaining how to use your esoteric latex wiki.

 

First of all the wiki and the manual are separate things, to edit the wiki, sign up for a user account and go into our irc channel to get write permission, click the edit button on any page and start typing :-)

The manual is written in LaTeX, it is out of the scope of our wiki to explain how to use LaTeX, there are however plenty of pages all over the net that do explain it. That's how I learned to work with the Rockbox manual, google for whatever you want to do + latex and read, look at other peoples work and trial & error.

• Make a wiki explaining how Rockbox is developed and coded.

The wiki has some documents which describe the architecture of rockbox and some more specialized documentation on specific parts. But just as our wiki shouln't have a LaTeX how-to a C-how-to would be just as out-of-place, plenty of other pages already have that. And there is no easy way to learn. Reading guides/books/howtos is only part of it, trying yourself is probably the most important and looking at other people's code to try to understand it.
Most likely you would have to hold a gun to each rockbox developer's head to make them document all the code, we code because it's fun, many don't think documenting is much fun, and do it only in places where it's really needed.
We will however answer _specific_ questions in irc, so please come into our irc channel and ask if something is unclear.

[Febs]

It is also not necessary to learn LaTeX to work on the manual.   If you do learn LaTeX, it makes it easier for us to incorporate your proposed changes into the manual, but it is also perfectly acceptable simply to post proposed changes to the patch tracker in a text file.

[Exitao]

Edit:

You do have a forum for coding.  

[bascule]

Only Getting Started and Compiling...

[bluebrother]

There seems to be a disconnect between coders and users.  The coders presume a level of capability on the part of everyone, predicated on the idea that they could learn to do it if they just stopped being stupid or lazy and just tried to learn.

There are alternatives if you want to help out with the manual. You could for example simply open the html version of the manual, edit it with your favourite html editor, hilight the changes and post it to the tracker. Or you could simply write a text file with the changes and post that. Of course, if you submit a diff against the LaTeX sources it's much easier (and less work) to integrate.

And honestly, most of the cryptic LaTeX stuff is hidden in macros, so if you just edit existing LaTeX files you most likely don't need any further knowledge of LaTeX.

Changing the way the manual works has been discussed (and shot down) previously. See this thread: http://www.rockbox.org/mail/archive/rockbox-dev-archive-2007-01/0064.shtml