Wanted: Someone to update the Stella manual

[+stephena]

I'm looking for volunteer(s) to update the Stella emulator manual, to make it more streamlined and easier to follow. This has been coming for quite some time now, as I've constantly been adding to the single HTML file for about 8 years, and it's now over 100KB in size!

 

I'm considering breaking the chapters into separate HTML files, adding a proper table of contents, a quick how-to startup, etc. My main problem is that I need some new perspective, as I'm so familiar with Stella that I don't really use the manual, and can't immediately see what problems it would have for newer, non-experienced users.

 

Everyone is welcome to post suggestions for improvements, etc, but what I really need is someone to step up and do the necessary work. I can provide help and guidance, but my time is very limited. Can someone help make Stella easier to use, and create a manual that will actually be read?

[+stephena]

OK, no responses so far, I see I went ahead and made some improvements, which will be released with version 3.2 (coming sometime this month). However, I'm still looking for someone with some CSS skills to make the document look a little nicer. The current design is literally from the 90's (late 1998 or so), and it looks quite dated. Is anyone willing to look this over, or at least do a proofread to see if I've left anything out??

[Keatah]

OK, no responses so far, I see I went ahead and made some improvements, which will be released with version 3.2 (coming sometime this month). However, I'm still looking for someone with some CSS skills to make the document look a little nicer. The current design is literally from the 90's (late 1998 or so), and it looks quite dated. Is anyone willing to look this over, or at least do a proofread to see if I've left anything out??

 

For chrissakes someone help the man out here!! I'm working on that frakking oil-spill so I don't have time. Maybe when I get back - as documentation is something I do for a living.

[+stephena]

Just as an FYI for those that might tackle this, the latest version of the documentation is always available at here.

[SeaGtGruff]

Just as an FYI for those that might tackle this, the latest version of the documentation is always available at here.

Thanks for the link. I wouldn't mind helping-- especially considering how much *you* have put into Stella over the last several years!-- but I don't know CSS (yet, anyway), and I can't promise that I'll be able to devote a lot of time to it, which makes me reluctant to step forward. At any rate, the first order of business would seem to be (re)organizing the material, which may be mostly just a matter of dividing it up into more bite-sized pages. That is one of the things you want accomplished, right? Converting it from one big ginormous document (or two, if you count the debugger) into more of a multi-paged and interlinked presentation?

 

Michael

[+stephena]

Just as an FYI for those that might tackle this, the latest version of the documentation is always available at here.

Thanks for the link. I wouldn't mind helping-- especially considering how much *you* have put into Stella over the last several years!-- but I don't know CSS (yet, anyway), and I can't promise that I'll be able to devote a lot of time to it, which makes me reluctant to step forward. At any rate, the first order of business would seem to be (re)organizing the material, which may be mostly just a matter of dividing it up into more bite-sized pages. That is one of the things you want accomplished, right? Converting it from one big ginormous document (or two, if you count the debugger) into more of a multi-paged and interlinked presentation?

 

Michael

The CSS thing is really just a suggestion. I basically want someone with more HTML/web page experience than me to recommend a design change, and actually implement it. The changes don't have to be large, just something to spruce up the thing.

 

As for splitting the document, again, that's only a suggestion. Would that be better? I don't know. The latest changes I've made make it much easier to do that, though, as there are internal links to different parts of the document. Changing these to reference external HTML files would be very easy.

 

However, my main overall goal is to make the document more readable for those looking for info (aka, newbies to Stella). If anyone has any better suggestions than mine (and potentially the time/ability to do it), then please post a message.

[wfletcher3]

Was the user manual ever updated?

Links above to it no longer work.

Can anyone tell me where the user manual for stella 6.x retron77 is kept?

 

Thnx up front

w-