Category:Pedias: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:03, 9 December 2017

Discussions are understanding-oriented articles aimed at explaining a particular topic. They are encyclopedic, intended to provide an overview of the subject at hand and various perspectives of it. A discussion article might be read casually for leisure, rather than being used as reference while coding.

Writing Discussions

Besides the general style considerations, discussion articles should provide a clear overview of their subject matter, and be accordingly organized into easily navigable sections. Therefore discussions should be diverse, covering multiple workflows, approaches and perspectives to the topic. However they should maintain focus on the topic they cover, linking to other resources such as dedicated articles when a section starts running too long.

While in general, discussion articles can take a wide variety of forms, the following canonical form is designed for articles covering a software package, application or libraries, and will often be applicable in the NixOS Wiki:

Introduction: a general overview.
Usage: a practical overview of different approaches to installing, configuring and operating the software, linking to more comprehensive guides.
Internals: a theoretical overview of the internal architecture of the software, including critical files and directories, processes and objects.
Development: a project overview for potential contributors, including an overview of the source-code directory structure, development process, issue tracking and the developer community.
History: a historical overview of the software, including an overview of the origins and past development of the software, and the broader historical context, such as precedents and antecedents.

Pages in category "Pedias"

The following 20 pages are in this category, out of 20 total.

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 Discussions are ''understanding-oriented'' articles aimed at explaining a particular topic. They are encyclopedic, intended to provide an overview of the subject at hand and various perspectives of it. A discussion article might be read casually for leisure, rather than being used as [[:Category:Reference|reference]] while coding.
-=== Style ===
+=== Writing Discussions ===
-Besides the [[Contributing to the Wiki#Style|general style considerations]], discussion articles should be written with the following considerations in mind:
+Besides the [[Contributing to the Wiki#Style|general style considerations]], discussion articles should provide a clear ''overview'' of their subject matter, and be accordingly organized into easily navigable sections. Therefore discussions should be ''diverse'', covering multiple workflows, approaches and perspectives to the topic. However they should maintain ''focus'' on the topic they cover, linking to other resources such as dedicated articles when a section starts running too long.
-* ''Accessibility'': discussions are often the first thing a new user will read about any subject, so they should be accessible to beginners.
+While in general, discussion articles can take a wide variety of forms, the following ''canonical form'' is designed for articles covering a software package, application or libraries, and will often be applicable in the NixOS Wiki:
-* ''Overview'': discussions must provide a clear overview of their subject matter, and be accordingly organized into easily navigable sections.
-* ''Variety'': related to the previous point, where appropriate discussions should cover multiple workflows, approaches and perspectives to the topic.
-=== Canonical Form ===
-While in general, discussion articles can take a wide variety of forms, certain types of articles recur in the NixOS wiki and warrant specific formats. For these we provide a ''canonical form'', designed for articles covering a software package, application or library. The following structure is recommended for such articles, with the first sections considered most critical:
 # ''Introduction'': a general overview.