EditorDoc:Main

Documentation for Editors

This section contains information and guidance for wiki editors.

Help wanted

This wiki is a semi-private wiki which only allows approved editors to make changes. If you would like to become a wiki editor, please contact us at the AmigaOS Web Site. Everyone has their own areas of expertise. Do not be shy about helping out even if you believe your contribution would be minor.

What to work on first?

There are probably thousands of places to start editing and creating more content on this wiki. Editors can use any approach they are comfortable with. However, we suggest you use a more focused approach and start in a more or less contained area.

The most important thing to change first is what programmers have questions about. If you see a question in a web forum about some aspect of the an AmigaOS system that is a perfect place to start. For example, if a programmer is having trouble figuring out how to create a GUI based on Window Class then add a section about Window Class. It doesn't have to be 100% complete either. Others can expand on what you start with. The most important thing is that you started.

But don't repeat yourself. If something is already written in the autodocs or include files try to refer to them. Don't just copy and paste what is already written in an autodoc. The wiki should be used to describe how to put all the various function calls together into a useful program. It should not just describe the functions-that is what autodocs are for.

What not to work on

What is not needed are collections of links to 3rd party web forums, libraries and tools. Such lists may seem useful but they become out of date very quickly and are difficult to maintain.

The wiki may include information about 3rd party contributions to AmigaOS like DvPlayer or IBrowse.

Spelling and grammar

If you see a spelling or grammar error then fix it. The last thing we need is editors wasting time emailing each other about how bad their spelling and/or grammar is. Small typos should be fixed immediately before you forget about them. Be good community members and help each other out with such errors. Not everyone is an English expert and many of our editors are not native English speakers.

Written permission

Material for this wiki may come from various sources such as the AmigaOS development team or third party sources. It is always important that written permission is obtained from the author(s) before material is used.

It is equally important that written permission be obtained to modify all submitted material on this wiki. AmigaOS will continue to evolve and thus so will any of the material on the wiki.

AmigaOS naming

In the past, version 4.x of the Amiga operating system has been known by many names including OS4, AmigaOS4, etc. For consistency, editors should always label the OS as "AmigaOS" only. Everything on this wiki is assumed to apply to version 4.x of AmigaOS or higher. When it is important to distinguish between versions of the operating system, add an explicit version number or range like so: "AmigaOS 3.1" or "AmigaOS 4.x". Note there is a space after the "AmigaOS" label in all cases.

AmigaOS component naming

There are a lot of AmigaOS components in the system. Some are resident in other components while others are contained in their own individual files. It is important to keep the name of the component separate from its logical manifestation. For example, "Intuition Library" is how we refer to the manifestation which is actually in the intuition.library.kmod file.

Depending on the context, you may need to refer to the actual file names. Which file contains the utility.library is very important when working on an installer for example. The utility.library is actually contained in the kernel.kmod file. However, when we are referring to the library in the general documentation it is referred to as the Utility Library.

Mixing of the component names and the component's logical manifestation should be generally avoided.

Information prior to AmigaOS 4.0

The focus of this wiki is AmigaOS 4.0 and higher. Material which exclusively pertains to prior versions of the AmigaOS should be removed. For example, there exists text which describe the 3D look of buttons, etc. as "new" which is clearly no longer the case. Such sections should be reworded or even removed entirely because in 4.0 the 3D look is assumed to be present.

References to AmigaOS clones

This wiki is intended to cover the official AmigaOS only. Any references to clone systems should be removed. However, sometimes a clone system may have a well established defacto standard (e.g. TD64) which is also supported by AmigaOS. In those cases, it may make sense to describe the defacto standard in terms of a clone system.

Code Beautification

Source code examples can be beautified (pretty printed) using GeSHi. The default language is assumed to be C. See SyntaxHighlight GeSHi for more information on how to use this extension.

C Example

Note the default language is assumed to be C.

<syntaxhighlight>
int main()
{
  IDOS->Printf("Hello, world!\n");
  return RETURN_OK;
}  
</syntaxhighlight>

produces

int main()
{
  IDOS->Printf("Hello, world!\n");
  return RETURN_OK;
}

C++ Example

<syntaxhighlight lang="cpp">
int main()
{
  std::cout << "Hello, world!" << std::endl;
  return RETURN_OK;
}  
</syntaxhighlight>

produces

int main()
{
  std::cout << "Hello, world!" << std::endl;
  return RETURN_OK;
}

ARexx Example

<syntaxhighlight lang="rexx">
/* A simple program */
SAY 'Hello, World!'
</syntaxhighlight>

produces

/* A simple program */
SAY 'Hello, World!'