KDE Developer Documentation

[Carl Schwan]

Hi Jucato,

Le vendredi, décembre 27, 2019 1:22 PM, Juan Carlos Torres <jucato at kdemail.net> a écrit :

> Hi Olivier,
> 

> Thank you for the compliments and the pointers! Having the example code in the git repo is definitely a great idea to make sure they will always compile. In line with that, we also need to make sure that each framework has such an example program that serves as an introduction to that framework. That will be part of the work to update and create more content for the API docs.
> 

> I'm not sure it will be sufficient to address a different kind of documentation, one that goes across specific APIs. I'm talking about tutorials on getting started that use different frameworks, or tutorials for other KDE software and components that don't neatly fit into the apidocs (at least afaik). The Qt docs are full of such tutorials (like [1] for starters) that live alongside the apidocs.
> 

> Was there any discussion on where such developer documentation would live other than the wiki? I was not at CERN so I'm afraid I'm not up-to-date in that matter. If they should live in the wikis, we're back to the problem of figuring out a way to keep the code and the content from rotting. If it were possible to have the code live in Git and then embedded in the wiki, that would at least solve half the problem (there are MediaWiki plugins but I think they are deemed unsafe).

It shouldn't be very difficult to create a MediaWiki plugins that embed a specific file from git in a MediaWiki page. We already have an extension for Bugzilla integration, so it is possible. But before trying to solve the technical details, we should ask ourselves how the result should look.

Do we still want to have a list of tutorials going from the basic to more technical topics? Do we still want to have all the tutorial hosted on the same website? Should we still allow everyone to edit the tutorial? Do we still want the tutorials to be translated? Do we want to make it easy for the user to download the code examples? ...

Regards,
Carl

> Any guidance on the matter is much appreciated!
> 

> [1] https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtwidgets-tutorials-notepad-example.html
> 

> On Tue, Dec 24, 2019 at 9:17 PM Olivier Churlaud <ochurlaud at sfr.fr> wrote:
> 

> > Hi all (and especially Juan Carlos),
> > 

> > I just read your report and it's very interesting. I agree with most of what you wrote.
> > 

> > I have some minor precisions to give about Techbase:
> > 

> >  The goal was to remove (or only archive) the tutorials on techbase and replace them by examples within the framework.   If having tutorials on a wiki is nice and findable, it is obsolete very soon after being written and we lack the resources for keeping an eye on every KDE library to curate and update the tutorial.
> > 

> > The conclusion of that was that tutorials need to live next to the frameworks they belong to AND that they break the compilation if they are out of date. I did some examples [1] and [2].It's a lot of work to do that, though, but at least it stays up to date. It could be loaded in api.kde.org in the future with snippets. That is basically what you propose, issue is that it was never finished. Pruning Techbase would really help as well. Porting the KDE4 Tutorials to KF5 in the wiki doesn't seem to me like the best idea because it's just moving the problem to the future.
> > 

> > Except of this small remark,  I really think you did an awesome job of synthesis that will be valuable for priorizing the work ahead.
> > 

> > Best regards
> > Olivier
> > 

> > [1] https://phabricator.kde.org/D14955
> > [2] https://phabricator.kde.org/D14957
> > 

> > Le lundi 23 décembre 2019, 12:00:43 CET Juan Carlos Torres a écrit :
> > > Greetings KDE developers and community members!
> > >
> > > In March this year, we started on a journey to take stock of our developer
> > > documentation and what needs to be done to make them not only more helpful
> > > to current contributors but also more inviting to new ones as well as
> > > external users of frameworks.
> > >
> > > The formal work ended in June and I submitted a full report [1] that
> > > included an analysis of the current state of developer documentation as
> > > well as the proposed actions the community could take together in the
> > > months and years ahead. Unfortunately, due to personal and family
> > > circumstances, I was unable to follow the matter up and for that, I am
> > > truly sorry.
> > >
> > > Six months have passed since then and while the initial report still holds
> > > true, events and situations have opened new opportunities for the community
> > > to focus on. An updated report [2] was submitted to the e.V. reflecting
> > > these small but important changes. Here is a brief summary of the points in
> > > the reports.
> > >
> > > 1. With Qt 6 and KDE Frameworks 6 underway, it is both all the more
> > > important and also a perfect opportunity to update our API documentation
> > > and make sure that they are complete and in good quality.
> > >
> > > 2. There is a growing interest in mobile devices and convergent experiences
> > > which is a good chance to attract more developers into Kirigami and Plasma
> > > Mobile. Updating the developer documentation and documentation systems for
> > > these two projects will be important.
> > >
> > > 3. While still important in order to maintain an orderly environment,
> > > cleaning up and organizing the wikis now takes a lower priority. That said,
> > > certain aspects like guides for new contributors and external developers
> > > are just as or even more important now than ever.
> > >
> > > 4. Since many parts of the developer documentation, particularly those
> > > related to Frameworks, might be in a period of transition or rapid change,
> > > it might be more practical to focus on creating content first in a
> > > temporary staging ground before having writers deal with different systems
> > > and software. The Wikis are perhaps suited for this kind of workflow.
> > >
> > > These are just some of the high-level points from the two reports and those
> > > documents contain more precise suggestions for the next actions to take.
> > > Again, I apologize to the community for dropping the ball for so long and I
> > > am very excited to get it rolling again. Let's make KDE and its developer
> > > documentation rock even more!
> > >
> > > Attached files:
> > >
> > > 1. 01 KDE Developer Documentation Update Project Report.pdf
> > > 2. 02 KDE Developer Documentation Report Update - 2019-12-09.pdf
> > >
> > >
> 

> --
> Regards,
> 

> Juan Carlos Torres
> Jucato
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