Board index FlightGear Development Documentation

Face lift for the manual

Discussion of the FlightGear documentation, how it can be improved and coordination of people working on it.

Face lift for the manual

Postby MIG29pilot » Mon Jun 01, 2015 3:47 pm

I have been editing the look and organisation of the manual. So far I have made a cover page, changed some pictures, and changed to organisation for the first few chapters. Check it out!
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?page=view&resid=3D399E818D08574F!681&authkey=!AD9JiH3vWc-KGpI
Last edited by MIG29pilot on Mon Jun 01, 2015 6:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
MIG29pilot
 
Posts: 1465
Joined: Tue May 19, 2015 5:03 pm
Location: 6 feet under Snow
Callsign: MIG29pilot
Version: 2020.1.3
OS: Windows 10

Re: Face lift for the maunal

Postby legoboyvdlp » Mon Jun 01, 2015 3:55 pm

Looks beautiful-- one thing-- the cover should probably be the official logo, as above.
User avatar
legoboyvdlp
 
Posts: 7981
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:28 am
Location: Northern Ireland
Callsign: G-LEGO
Version: next
OS: Windows 10 HP

Re: Face lift for the maunal

Postby MIG29pilot » Mon Jun 01, 2015 4:02 pm

I don't know. I like this logo better. Better ask that chap in charge of that sort of thing about it.
User avatar
MIG29pilot
 
Posts: 1465
Joined: Tue May 19, 2015 5:03 pm
Location: 6 feet under Snow
Callsign: MIG29pilot
Version: 2020.1.3
OS: Windows 10

Re: Face lift for the maunal

Postby legoboyvdlp » Mon Jun 01, 2015 4:04 pm

That's fine! I like the other one myself-- but we'll see what happens ;)
User avatar
legoboyvdlp
 
Posts: 7981
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:28 am
Location: Northern Ireland
Callsign: G-LEGO
Version: next
OS: Windows 10 HP

Re: Face lift for the maunal

Postby MIG29pilot » Mon Jun 01, 2015 4:41 pm

Right. By the way, you and anyone else can edit it.
User avatar
MIG29pilot
 
Posts: 1465
Joined: Tue May 19, 2015 5:03 pm
Location: 6 feet under Snow
Callsign: MIG29pilot
Version: 2020.1.3
OS: Windows 10

Re: Face lift for the manual

Postby Torsten » Tue Jun 02, 2015 10:32 am

Nice.
Be aware, "the manual" is maintained as a set of latex files stored here:
https://sourceforge.net/p/flightgear/ge ... ster/tree/
Stuart is usually coordinating changes to it.

Torsten
flightgear.org - where development happens.
User avatar
Torsten
 
Posts: 648
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:22 pm
Location: near Hamburg, Germany
Callsign: offline
Version: next
OS: Linux

Re: Face lift for the manual

Postby gsagostinho » Tue Jun 02, 2015 12:25 pm

Torsten wrote in Tue Jun 02, 2015 10:32 am:Be aware, "the manual" is maintained as a set of latex files stored here:
https://sourceforge.net/p/flightgear/ge ... ster/tree/
Stuart is usually coordinating changes to it.


In that case I think you guys should really keep the LaTeX format as it's vastly superior to anything else when it comes to text. For instance, it would easily solve for instance all the margin problems that the manual in this post is having (phrases running away after a margin). Also letting Stuart know about your efforts is fundamental so any improvements can be incorporated.
User avatar
gsagostinho
 
Posts: 1806
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 7:27 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Face lift for the manual

Postby stuart » Wed Jun 03, 2015 5:24 am

Hi Mig29pilot!

Great to hear someone interested in improving The Manual. I've not had time to do much more than keep up with the lates GUI changes and update the version number of the last couple of releases, so I'd be delighted to receive updates.

As Torsten has mentioned, the manual itself is managed as Latex source code, from which the PDF and HTML versions are generated. Latex is fairly straightforward to learn and has very good support on Linux. So, if you are able to provide "diffs" against that, that would be ideal.

However, if that's too difficult for you, I'm happy to receive descriptions of what you'd like to change and I can then make the changes on your behalf. If you want to do down this route it's very helpful to be explicit about the old text you want to change so I can find it as easily as possible.

I've had a bit of difficulty seeing what you've changed so far as some of the formatting and numbering seems to have been broken. I can see you've got some updated graphics, but how have you re-organized it, and what was your thinking behind it?

Best regards,

-Stuart
G-MWLX
User avatar
stuart
Moderator
 
Posts: 1629
Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:56 am
Location: Edinburgh
Callsign: G-MWLX

Re: Face lift for the manual

Postby Lydiot » Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:44 pm

I'm in favor of using the same logo consistently throughout the "FG universe", instead of having a different logo for different places (i.e. manual, website, wiki etc).
Lydiot
 
Posts: 1016
Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2013 11:50 pm

Re: Face lift for the manual

Postby wkitty42 » Wed Jun 03, 2015 11:14 pm

logos are very important... they can be quite costly and generally are not changed without good cause and additional expense...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
User avatar
wkitty42
 
Posts: 9148
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04

Re: Face lift for the manual

Postby MIG29pilot » Thu Jun 04, 2015 12:15 am

stuart wrote in Wed Jun 03, 2015 5:24 am:Hi Mig29pilot!

Great to hear someone interested in improving The Manual. I've not had time to do much more than keep up with the lates GUI changes and update the version number of the last couple of releases, so I'd be delighted to receive updates.

As Torsten has mentioned, the manual itself is managed as Latex source code, from which the PDF and HTML versions are generated. Latex is fairly straightforward to learn and has very good support on Linux. So, if you are able to provide "diffs" against that, that would be ideal.

However, if that's too difficult for you, I'm happy to receive descriptions of what you'd like to change and I can then make the changes on your behalf. If you want to do down this route it's very helpful to be explicit about the old text you want to change so I can find it as easily as possible.

I've had a bit of difficulty seeing what you've changed so far as some of the formatting and numbering seems to have been broken. I can see you've got some updated graphics, but how have you re-organized it, and what was your thinking behind it?

Best regards,

-Stuart


Well, I've only really started it, and I haven't much time top work on it. I am not complaining about content, but I must say, the actual layout and appearance rather neglected-- FlightGear v3.4 deserves better screenshots and layout, don't you think? So that's what it is. Just "sprucing it up" a little. And yes, I will see about Latex, if I get a chance.
User avatar
MIG29pilot
 
Posts: 1465
Joined: Tue May 19, 2015 5:03 pm
Location: 6 feet under Snow
Callsign: MIG29pilot
Version: 2020.1.3
OS: Windows 10

Re: Face lift for the manual

Postby Thorsten » Thu Jun 04, 2015 6:25 am

Since it's LaTeX, changing the layout should not cost more than 15 minutes. Screenshots are a different matter - someone will have to re-create them.
Thorsten
 
Posts: 12490
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 9:33 am

Re: Face lift for the manual

Postby japreja » Mon Jun 29, 2015 1:16 am

@MIG29pilot
I havent looked at the official latex documents yet but I have to say I realy like the Cover page. I've been tracking down some TeX versions for windows and the one I installed was MiKTeX. I've toyed around with tex documents before just to see how they work. Most, if not, all c/c++ projects make use of LaTeX and it might be a good idea to grab a Windows version of TeX to figure it all out. Using templates, you can export the LaTeX document to nearly any document format you can imagine, including REST (wiki text), although I don't know yet if a template exists for that.

I am going to grab the git version of the FG Manual and see how MiKTeX handles it and to play around to see if I can offer anything.
japreja
 
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri May 08, 2015 12:05 am
Location: MT, USA
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64bit

Re: Face lift for the manual

Postby MIG29pilot » Mon Jun 29, 2015 1:06 pm

Ok, thanks
User avatar
MIG29pilot
 
Posts: 1465
Joined: Tue May 19, 2015 5:03 pm
Location: 6 feet under Snow
Callsign: MIG29pilot
Version: 2020.1.3
OS: Windows 10


Return to Documentation

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest