Documentation Beta

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Kevin Montrose

18:35

latest wave of emails went out

the "commit to a tag to open documentation for it"-feature has been enabled as well

Neal

Hi all!

Kevin Montrose

greetings

.net
android
angularjs
asp.net
asp.net-mvc
bash
c
c#
c++
css
django
git
go
haskell
html
ios
java
javascript
jquery
linux
matlab
mysql
node.js
numpy
objective-c
perl
php
python
r
regex
ruby
ruby-on-rails
rust
scala
sql
sql-server
swift
vb.net
wordpress
xcode

^ list of tags (and their wikis) imported from SO for beta testing purposes

Neal

Noone wrote anything for javascript yet?

Kevin Montrose

nope, the possibility to open the [javascript] tag was just flipped on

Neal

@KevinMontrose whoa. how serendipidous

So how does this work exactly?

Kevin Montrose

18:40

there's a long introductory post - the tl;dr is "create or edit topics (pages)" -> submit for review -> profit

there's a whole new editor and review interface for Docs, since they're structured differently from Q&A

(the editor is also on CommonMark, since we could do a clean break)

Neal

I dont get what a good "topic" would be for javascript

Kevin Montrose

functions, arrays, strings, numbers, probably all the built in objects, etc.

Topics are groupings of Examples (with optional addition prose) illustrating common tasks, or solutions to common problems.

A lot of (not purely reference) documentation is already logically grouped "into topics."

Neal

I cannot seem to edit examples

ooo editor is different

Kevin Montrose

yah, Documentation tends be bigger - the Q&A editor could not cope

JonasCz

Is there / will there be a way to undelete a topic ?

Kevin Montrose

18:55

yes

I've got a branch for rollbacks (which cover undeletes) sitting here

it's... tricky to get right, but should be done this week

Neal

Wait... I can vote on my own examples?

Kevin Montrose

they aren't really "yours" - you are a contributor to them; no rep flows through

I've waffled on whether to prevent a vote if you're the sole or most recent contributor...

I could go either way

Jonathan Walters

oh. you have to request a topic before you can create a topic? Can you create the topic you requested?

Kevin Montrose

nah, you can just create it

Jonathan Walters

I don't see a button to do that directly. :|

Kevin Montrose

19:03

on any of the tag dashboards

Jonathan Walters

oh. It wasn't clear that you were drafting topics. I wasn't sure what that was for. mb, thanks.

Kevin Montrose

yeah, might want to tweak the wording there

brentonstrine

19:23

ok, i'm totally new, just followed a link in email... can someone explain to me what this is? the 'info' post was confusing

Jonathan Walters

@brentonstrine post info on topics you know about. right now documentation consists of super basic stuff like Java Arrays, Strings, etc. I suspect the long term goal is to get into more difficult stuff that isn't incredibly well defined elsewhere.

brentonstrine

so, like, could i post an introduction to HTML?

Jonathan Walters

speaking of which, how simple are examples supposed to be? There are a few people going through and commenting "shouldn't this be split into multiple examples" on things that are already 5 or so lines of code.

brentonstrine

"HTML stands for HyperText" ... "to create a tag, use the < symbol" etc

Jonathan Walters

@brentonstrine I would just go through and look at what already exists in Java to get a feel for what is going on. docs-beta.stackexchange.com/documentation/java/topics

brentonstrine

19:28

ah, so Java is split into predefined categories, e.g. "Arrays"

so I can post something on the topic of Arrays in Java

Kevin Montrose

yep, you can also propose whole new topics (see above image)

brentonstrine

ok, i added something. docs-beta.stackexchange.com/documentation/proposed/changes/1461 am i getting the right idea here?

Kevin Montrose

yah, that's the gist of it

remember you can also add remarks (and in some cases, syntax and parameters) if you think they're needed

topics don't just have to be examples

(though we do require 1, for now)

Kevin Montrose

19:50

(changed the copy of the "Create New (Draft|Topic)" button)

SZenC

20:02

I think I found a bug

Kevin Montrose

post a bug question

Jonathan Walters

Neal

20:22

@KevinMontrose is there a need to do this? docs-beta.stackexchange.com/documentation/proposed/changes/… I just want to reject that part of the edit, but I do not know how to...

I dont want to approve something that seems wrong, but there is no option to edit an edit...

SZenC

I was thinking the exact same

Waaaaiiit, I can just retract, edit, and resend

Jonathan Walters

so I've been playing around with this for awhile now and... I don't get it. What problem is this solving that isn't already solved by stackoverflow itself? Is there a mission statement somewhere?

Neal

20:39

@SZenC can you review: docs-beta.stackexchange.com/documentation/proposed/changes/1479 :-) ?

@KevinMontrose ^

SZenC

Instapproved, man those are good examples

Neal

@KevinMontrose how do we reorder the examples? it seems arbitrary

@SZenC Thanks :-)

There is still more to come on Classes

Jonathan Walters

@Neal I think they are ordered based on votes right now

Neal

@JonathanWalters Hmmm idk if that is the correct way to go for "documentation" usually documentation is meant to be read in order :-(

At least I can upvote my own examples to get one to the top :-)

Jonathan Walters

haha, you vote manipulator you.

Neal

20:43

;-)

Neal

20:57

STAR ME (I want the badge (for science!))

Stewartside

21:09

Hey Guys :)

Neal

@Stewartside Hay is for horses. ;-)

Stewartside

Terrible, terrible joke :P

Neal

@Stewartside Jealous much? :-)

Martin

21:40

hello

MSeifert

Stewartside

@Neal why are you using let when that can only be used outside of strict mode

surely var would make it easier to use/understand for your basic user?

MSeifert

I am not sure even though I've read it two times now. Will the reputation system be merged with the main site or will it be seperate?

JonasCz

@KevinMontrose, why does the versions table require the date to be in a specific format ? i don't really like to have to use yyyy-mm-dd.

@MSeifert Rep will be merged with SO. from meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/319319/… "Reputation will be shared with your Stack Overflow Q&A account once Documentation is out of beta"

MSeifert

thank you. Didn't noticed there was substantial text between the big images...