Posted: 8/24/2019 10:55 PM
(Edited: 1/8/2020 5:03 PM)
Post subject: I want to help create BizHawk's help file.
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dart193
He/Him
Player (34)
Joined: 1/20/2013
Posts: 61
We have talked about it in discord and I was suggested to bring it here. Generally, I started my emulation with FCE, later moving to FCEUX. This emulator contained a wondeful thing - a help file, which describes EVERY single aspect and element of an emulator, and also included a separate TASeditor manual. But in BizHawk's there is no such thing, despite it being a very serious emulator. Especially that we are TASers here (I can now proudly call myself a TASer too, heh), and several things totally require good explanation, especially for newbies. I have now a TAS successfully published on the site, but it would not be possible if FCEUX hadn't TASeditor manual. TAStudio differs a bit but not much from TASeditor. So I consider a good all-in-one-file manual a must for such serious and complex program like BizHawk. I asked feos how much progress is done over the manual... and I have been told that there is no actual manual planned!!! "A shame.", thought I, and now I want to create one. You have probably noticed few mistakes and typos in the post already, and its because I am actually from Russia. But I have been told several times in chats that it is actually a surpise when I tell them that English is not a native language to me. So I think that it is not a barrier here. So I am planning to start working on the manual for BizHawk 2.3.2 and onward. The structure would be similar to the one in FCEUX - it would descrbe every option and its effect, however obvious they might be. I will be posting here the progress as it will happen, although I am not actually planning to start right away. I have quite enough things, but I just can't anymore see Biz not having a manual. I have uploaded current version to google drive. Feel free to give feed back. Link to Google Drive shared folder. Last updated: 25.08.2019 23:16. This is the first edition. It barely has any info, but "File.txt" demonstrates the level of depth that I want the help file to have. Loss of motivation and lack of reminding resulted in me forgetting completely about this project.
Posted: 8/24/2019 11:40 PM
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Patashu
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Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4017
Documentation is very important work, and I hope your efforts go well!
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Posted: 8/25/2019 2:38 AM
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dart193
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Player (34)
Joined: 1/20/2013
Posts: 61
I have decided to actually start doing it now. While summary and few other pages are quite in pre-alpha, I think that right now I am going to prepare "Quick start" page, since it basically could be used standalone. The problem that I will encounter is that I only emulated 1/3 of systems BizHawk can do. I will definitely learn about those, but some help will be needed with N64 video plugins. So far I would say that writing help is time consuming but not too difficult. I might be able to post some prototype in a few weeks, although it is going to be just a set of barely formatted txt files.
Posted: 8/25/2019 9:55 AM
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feos
Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU
NES TAS of 2011
adelikat's intent years ago was that tasvideos wiki should contain all the needed info, but that still doesn't solve the problem of off-line docs. And HelpNDoc can't output wiki code AFAIK.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Posted: 8/25/2019 3:49 PM
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dart193
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Player (34)
Joined: 1/20/2013
Posts: 61
@feos, I have actually read the wiki you mentioned when I started using BizHawk. It contains about half the info a help file like the one in FCEUX should contain. Like, supported systems subpages can contain more information about system supported features. Is the GB Printer supported? Can you use SNES mouse? Is GB Link avaliable? Is GBA link avaliable too? Some of this info may not even sound important, but someone completely new to emulation might stumble upon BizHawk and try to use it. With that many options that are in BizHawk, I feel like it is a necessitiy to have a complete guide for every single option there is. Right now I am creating everything in pure txt format. So that it can be ported to other formats without problems. In case thing won't work out much, I can always encode the manual into into HTML using Notepad++. I have seen enough help files like that, so many users should be familiar. Especially that it will be heavily interlinked. The main problem stays writing the text itself. Even that there is a lot of info in the wiki already, the style of this info is not suitable for a manual. Some pages use somewhat official style, but others... Basic Bot page is something I could not understand, because you seemingly need to watch a video... and since I am on an EDGE connection here, that is not an option. Some pages have so many "I think" and "it might" so I am not even sure the author knows what these options do. Quick start is something that I did not found too, and that section is something needed for people who just want to try the program quickly before they decide they actually want to use it. As such, I am writing all the text myself, testing option and peeking at the wiki or some complicated thing that I did not yet got myself. But I do plan to make sure to check every option and button myself. EDIT: I have uploaded the project to Google Drive. Everyone can now check it. Formatting is currently absent - I am more concentrating on content, and even then the text is only a first edition. Apparently, no one can read that without formatting. So some formatting was added. Enjoy!
Posted: 8/26/2019 12:11 AM
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Glitcholog
Joined: 9/18/2018
Posts: 21
Location: Québec, Canada
+1 on this Although the important info is here, I think it need organization and at least a basic search bar. To be frank, I agree with dart193. Even on the website, a complete guide for Bizhawk could really help it to be more accessible outside of the TAS community. I mean, the emulator is really amazing and is extremely potent, but I rarely heard about it outside of the TAS world, which is unfortunate because it has a high compatibility rate compared to many standalone emulator.
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Posted: 8/26/2019 9:21 AM
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dart193
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Player (34)
Joined: 1/20/2013
Posts: 61
This is why I want to create complete help. A good documentation can make even bad software look good. Another thing is that some people simply like reading stuff like docs, changlelogs and other things. Reading help file can allow even experienced users open new features. Like me - I discovered a feature right in the process of writing those docs.
Posted: 8/26/2019 1:21 PM
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InfamousKnight
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Joined: 9/12/2014
Posts: 536
Location: Waterford, MI
Despite tasing since late 2014, I still have no idea why tas studio is so complex. To me, it looks like clicking on inputs rather than typing them. Terms like branch and zones I dont really understand. And why theres so many fixes to tas studio on every release.
Posted: 7/21/2020 1:47 PM
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dart193
He/Him
Player (34)
Joined: 1/20/2013
Posts: 61
The project has been cancelled due to the lack of writer's skill. It looks like simply knowing how something works is not enough to create an instruction about it.