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The Propeller Manual is now open source — Parallax Forums

The Propeller Manual is now open source

Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
edited 2014-09-06 14:28 in Propeller 1
LameStation has been given the go-ahead by Parallax to create an open source version of the Propeller Manual.

We've migrated the entire document to our website where we are going to town on it! Restructuring, reorganizing, rearranging,... so many Rs!

Check out what we've done with the Spin manual so far!

https://lamestation.atlassian.net/wiki/display/SPIN/

A breakdown of some of the changes:
  • The manual can now offer command suggestions as you type in the search box.
  • The manual has been split into three separate documents, as they are largely separate topics in practice.
    • ​Propeller Hardware Manual
    • Propeller Spin Manual
    • Propeller Assembly Manual
  • Cross-references between Spin/PASM sections are also being removed for the same reason; the exception being sections about interfacing between the two.
  • The manual will be available in both PDF and HTML formats; this will allow us to provide a searchable help index to incorporate into the PropTool and PropellerIDE.
  • The Operators section has been expanded in the table of contents, and all sections are now organized by category to make searching/referencing easier.
  • The command syntax will be simplified to be easier to reproduce in other formats.
  • Explicit page numbers and figure references are being replaced with direct hyperlinks.
There's still a lot of work left to do. Anyone interested in getting involved with this project can email us at contact@lamestation.com.

Comments

  • Peter JakackiPeter Jakacki Posts: 10,193
    edited 2014-09-05 04:04
    Brett Weir wrote: »
    LameStation has been given the go-ahead by Parallax to create an open source version of the Propeller Manual.

    We've migrated the entire document to our website where we are going to town on it! Restructuring, reorganizing, rearranging,... so many Rs!

    Rs hey? Really radical robust revolutionary refreshing retrospective revisionary reading repository.
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-09-05 04:14
    Peter Jakacki wrote: »
    Rs hey? Really radical robust revolutionary refreshing retrospective revisionary reading repository.

    Well, Rn't you something? I'm ROFLing, rightly so. =P
  • PliersPliers Posts: 280
    edited 2014-09-05 04:26
    Impressive Peter.

    Nice work Brett. I like your WEB site.
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-09-05 05:47
    Pliers wrote: »
    Impressive Peter.

    Nice work Brett. I like your WEB site.

    Thanks Pliers! Yes, I was impressed to. >.>
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2014-09-05 05:48
    Great news Brett. By the way - just got lost for a while on the LameStation site. Really neat site and great project! Best of luck! My son and I would love this! Don't know that we are developer material though!
  • macrobeakmacrobeak Posts: 354
    edited 2014-09-05 06:54
    Thank you. This is very comprehensive and valuable. Obviously a lot of work went into this project. It is greatly appreciated.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-09-05 07:37
    Very cool.

    Only one little hitch here. When viewed with Chrome on Linux I can't scroll up and down with the arrow keys. Works with Firefox though.

    Oh yeah, and the washed out blue text every where is a bit of a downer for easy reading.

    Good job though.
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-09-05 15:46
    Whit wrote: »
    Great news Brett. By the way - just got lost for a while on the LameStation site. Really neat site and great project! Best of luck! My son and I would love this! Don't know that we are developer material though!

    Hey, I'm glad you like it! It's not a problem if you're not a developer. Right now, LameStation is preparing to supply kits for the first ever LameStation class, offered by Eggheadz gaming lab ( http://www.eggheadzlabz.com/ ), so for the next couple of months, we're going to really be working on getting the software side of the kit polished up. If you don't mind that things aren't perfect and are happy to email me when you have questions, I'd be happy to get one for you!
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-09-05 15:47
    macrobeak wrote: »
    Thank you. This is very comprehensive and valuable. Obviously a lot of work went into this project. It is greatly appreciated.

    Thanks, I'm glad you like it! I've always wanted to make my own version of the Propeller manual so I was very happy when Ken gave me the okay!
  • DaveJensonDaveJenson Posts: 375
    edited 2014-09-05 15:49
    Brett Weir wrote: »
    Hey, I'm glad you like it! It's not a problem if you're not a developer. Right now, LameStation is preparing to supply kits for the first ever LameStation class, offered by Eggheadz gaming lab ( http://www.eggheadzlabz.com/ ), so for the next couple of months, we're going to really be working on getting the software side of the kit polished up. If you don't mind that things aren't perfect and are happy to email me when you have questions, I'd be happy to get one for you!

    Get one for me too! I signed up on your site, but haven't gotten any response back.I would like to be part of the Beta Test group.
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-09-05 15:57
    Heater. wrote: »
    Very cool.

    Only one little hitch here. When viewed with Chrome on Linux I can't scroll up and down with the arrow keys. Works with Firefox though.

    Oh yeah, and the washed out blue text every where is a bit of a downer for easy reading.

    Good job though.

    Thanks!

    I actually run multiple versions of Xubuntu Linux for all of my machines and use Chromium as my main browser, and I haven't noticed that issue. It's likely an issue of focus though; try clicking around inside the content window itself, then scrolling up and down. The side and top bars do not scroll, so if they have focus, nothing will happen.

    Hmm, I hadn't thought about that. I'll get some feedback from other people and maybe I can find a darker shade of blue to use for hyperlinks.

    =)
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-09-05 16:00
    DaveJenson wrote: »
    Get one for me too! I signed up on your site, but haven't gotten any response back.I would like to be part of the Beta Test group.

    Hi Dave! I apologize, I should have emailed you directly. Yes, I did receive your pre-order, thanks! All the new stock is still on its way. I was waiting to charge your card for when the kit was ready to ship out, but it shouldn't be more than a week or two when everything arrives. Hang in there!
  • DavidZemonDavidZemon Posts: 2,973
    edited 2014-09-05 18:23
    This looks great!!! Well done

    Maybe I missed something (sorry if I did), but where's the Propeller Assembly Manual? I didn't see a link for it next to Spin and Hardware manuals.
    Brett Weir wrote: »
    I actually run multiple versions of Xubuntu Linux for all of my machines and use Chromium as my main browser, and I haven't noticed that issue. It's likely an issue of focus though; try clicking around inside the content window itself, then scrolling up and down. The side and top bars do not scroll, so if they have focus, nothing will happen.

    Bringing focus into the frame works (Ubuntu/Chrome)
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2014-09-05 18:46
    That's a great use of Confluence.
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-09-05 19:24
    SwimDude0614 wrote: »
    This looks great!!! Well done

    Maybe I missed something (sorry if I did), but where's the Propeller Assembly Manual? I didn't see a link for it next to Spin and Hardware manuals.

    Ah! I had forgotten to make the assembly manual viewable to anonymous users. There you go; still needs a lot of work to catch up with the Spin manual though.
    https://lamestation.atlassian.net/wiki/display/PASM/
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-09-05 19:27
    SRLM wrote: »
    That's a great use of Confluence.

    I love Confluence so much!
  • YanomaniYanomani Posts: 1,524
    edited 2014-09-05 19:53
    Hi Brett Wier

    Awesome work!

    Only one minor challenge, for you to think about...

    Browsing the assembly manual, using Firefox or IE8 under XP, each time I selected an instruction on the left panel, as the right panel reacts to the selection and starts displaying the intended description, the left panel rolls back to its home position.
    Since i was browsing the contents, instruction by instruction, its going to cost me a lot of cursor movement, repositioning the left panel, to access the next mnemonic on the list.



    Yanomani
    Brett Weir wrote: »
    Ah! I had forgotten to make the assembly manual viewable to anonymous users. There you go; still needs a lot of work to catch up with the Spin manual though.
    https://lamestation.atlassian.net/wiki/display/PASM/
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-09-05 20:19
    Yanomani wrote: »
    Hi Brett Wier

    Awesome work!

    Only one minor challenge, for you to think about...

    Browsing the assembly manual, using Firefox or IE8 under XP, each time I selected an instruction on the left panel, as the right panel reacts to the selection and starts displaying the intended description, the left panel rolls back to its home position.
    Since i was browsing the contents, instruction by instruction, its going to cost me a lot of cursor movement, repositioning the left panel, to access the next mnemonic on the list.



    Yanomani

    Oh, yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. It will be better once I have organized the assembly manual like I have with the Spin manual; then the list won't be so long. I am also looking at customizing Confluence by adding previous/next buttons to every page in the future, but this is an issue I'd need to raise with Atlassian itself and their application.
  • DavidZemonDavidZemon Posts: 2,973
    edited 2014-09-05 21:05
    I notice a number of assembly instructions have the suffix "0". Is this a limitation of confluence - can't have to pages with the same title? Example: https://lamestation.atlassian.net/wiki/display/PASM/WAITCNT0
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-09-05 21:10
    SwimDude0614 wrote: »
    I notice a number of assembly instructions have the suffix "0". Is this a limitation of confluence - can't have to pages with the same title? Example: https://lamestation.atlassian.net/wiki/display/PASM/WAITCNT0

    Ah, that's a result of importing a single document containing two languages with overlapping command names. One of the first indications that they should probably be separate documents!

    It'll be fixed when I start working on the assembly manual.
  • frank freedmanfrank freedman Posts: 1,983
    edited 2014-09-05 23:58
    Probably one of the most useful things you could do with the Assembly manual would be to include a snippet of code showing the possible uses of an instruction including any preceding code such as for instructions acting dependently upon state of flags.

    Thanks.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-09-06 01:23
    Yep, the focus thing confused me. But that's because it's confusing:)

    The scroll wheel will scroll the right hand pane when the mouser cursor is on the right hand side. There is no need to click anywhere.

    The up and down arrow keys will scroll the right hand pane BUT you have to click on it first not just have the mouse in there. So basically when the page first loads the arrow keys don't work.

    That's in Chrome. For Firefox things just work as expected.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2014-09-06 01:47
    Brett,
    Excellent work.

    BTW I always wondered what Atlassian did.
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-09-06 14:21
    frank freedman wrote: »
    Probably one of the most useful things you could do with the Assembly manual would be to include a snippet of code showing the possible uses of an instruction including any preceding code such as for instructions acting dependently upon state of flags.

    Thanks.

    Yes, I think that would definitely be awesome. I'd also, if their respective creators would allow me, like to start integrating the existing Propeller assembly tutorials (like the one DeSilva made) into the manual. Does anyone know how I can reach them?
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-09-06 14:24
    Heater. wrote: »
    Yep, the focus thing confused me. But that's because it's confusing:)

    The scroll wheel will scroll the right hand pane when the mouser cursor is on the right hand side. There is no need to click anywhere.

    The up and down arrow keys will scroll the right hand pane BUT you have to click on it first not just have the mouse in there. So basically when the page first loads the arrow keys don't work.

    That's in Chrome. For Firefox things just work as expected.

    Haha, I feel you, man. I'm glad it's working normally in Firefox though. I'll submit a ticket later to tell Atlasssian about the issue.
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-09-06 14:28
    Cluso99 wrote: »
    Brett,
    Excellent work.

    BTW I always wondered what Atlassian did.

    Thanks! At my old job, I was on a mission to find the ultimate wiki system, and Confluence was adopted orders of magnitude faster than any other option I had presented. I've been an evangelist ever since. =P
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