I am working on some documentation, examples, & c. to
encourage easy adoption of Proton.
I expect every one of you has had the experience
of trying to use a new software package and not
getting decent help doing so. I would like to
do what I can to help delight any software person who
decides to spend 5 or 10 minutes looking at Proton.
Please take a look at my proposals, below, and let
me know if I missed your pet peeve.
------------------------------ Mick .
Here is a list of the components of the documentation that I
am proposing, with explanations of each.
Documentation Components List
{
1. Quick Start
2. Theory of Operation
3. Component Explanations
4. Riffs
5. Examples
6. Tutorials
7. Error Dictionary
}
Documentation Components Description
{
1. Quick Start
{
A guide to getting up and running, from download to
"hello world" in 10 minutes.
The guide itself should be concise, and should help
to diagnose any common problems you might run into.
This document does not explain anything except what
you need to know to get up and tunning.
}
2. Theory of Operation
{
An overview of the components of the messenger interface,
and an explanation of how those components are used, and
how they interact with each other.
This information will be greatly expanded upon by the
Component Explanations, the Riffs, and the Examples,
but this section gives you the big picture.
To explain with an analogy: my car has a driver's interface
which consists of an ignition switch, a steering wheel, a
clutch, a stick, a gas pedal, and a brake pedal. My
daughter understands the function of each one of those
things separately -- but she still can't drive the car.
To drive the car you also need to know how those subsystems
are all expected to work together. That is a 'theory of
operation'.
}
3. Component Explanations
{
These are like a Theory of Operation, but for individual
components of the Messenger interface. More detailed
than the overall Theory of Operation, but more narrow.
One for each of the following Messenger components:
3.1 accept modes
3.2 errors
3.3 message windows
3.4 messengers
3.5 security
3.6 subscriptions
3.7 timeouts
3.8 trackers
}
4. Riffs // rename these "idioms" ?
{
A 'riff' is a series of function calls that will often be
associated with each other in application code.
Riffs are code-snippets, not complete running examples,
but the code in them would compile and run if it were
inside a complete example.
Each riff also contains an explanation of why the functions
should be used together in this way.
Some types of riffs:
"These functions will often be used together,
in this order."
"These functions are mutually exclusive."
"Use the output from this one as the input to that one."
}
5. Examples
{
Complete running examples, with explanations. These are
narrowly focused on the topic at hand, leaving out code
that may be good practice in a real application, but
may divert attention from the topic at hand.
Eventually, all of these examples should be written in
both C and Java.
Proposed example program topics:
{
messaging patterns
{
point-to-point
fanout
request-reply
publish-subscribe
dead letter
}
security
error handling
timeouts
message windows
sending
receiving
tracker
}
}
6. Tutorials
{
Tutorials are larger than examples, and are focused on
real-world aspects of messaging applications, rather
than being focused on the library code.
A tutorial will typically be longer than an example,
will contain more explanatory text, and will show
and discuss alternative approaches.
Proposed tutorial topics:
{
Security
High Speed Messaging
High Availability
}
}
7. Error Dictionary
{
When you use the library, you may occasionally see errors and
warnings.
What do they mean? What should you do about them?
Are they your problem, or the library's problem?
This document gives the user a detailed explanation of each
error and warning, and suggestions for dealing with them.
}
}
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