DB48X documentation - Call for volunteers

[c3d]

If you are not a coder, but want to contribute to an HP-related free software project, there is a great opportunity: you could help with the documentation for DB48X. Ideally, if you have a DM32 or DM42, you could also flash the firmware and experiment with it to get ideas about what needs to be documented or where the documentation can be improved.

The documentation source can be found here: https://github.com/c3d/DB48X-on-DM42/tree/stable/doc. It consists of markdown files, for example https://github.com/c3d/DB48X-on-DM42/blo...verview.md or https://github.com/c3d/DB48X-on-DM42/blo...duction.md.

The same files are then assembled to form the on-line help in the calculator itself. This is what the 0-Overview.md above looks like on the calculator:
   

In my opinion, it is fairly easy to contribute to that documentation. All you need is a GitHub account, cloning the repository, doing changes using the built-in editor on GitHub, and then submitting your changes as a "pull request". If you do so, please add your name to the 'Authors' section in 0-Overview.md.

The process of converting to the built-in help sets a few restrictions regarding what can be done.

1. The calculator help engine, for example, will not display pictures. This does not mean we cannot have pictures and screenshots in the documentation: I intend to filter them out when we cross that bridge. So feel free to add pictures or screenshots in the on-line documentation.

2. It displays special symbols for the blue and yellow squares used to represent the shift keys, so using these characters to represent a shift sequence is a good idea.

3. It also interprets italics, such as "_Key_", as key markers, shown in white on black. So whenever you refer to a key, you should put it in markdown italics.

4. Cross-references should be internal, i.e. assume that all files are assembled in the final on-line help.


The documentation today is a mess. There is plenty to be done, from fixing typos to improving explanations for existing commands to consistently adding stack diagrams to removing tons of newRPL commands where I just imported the newRPL online help as a starting point (many of these commands may not apply to DB48X).

So if you feel like you can help, your contribution will be very welcome.