forked from osmocom/wireshark
145 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
145 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
= Introduction
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This directory contains the source files needed to build the:
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- Wireshark User’s Guide
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- Wireshark Developer’s Guide
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- Release notes (NEWS)
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- Lua Reference
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To build everything, build the `all_guides` target, e.g. `ninja
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all_guides` or `msbuild all_guides.vcxproj`. Requirements are listed
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below.
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The guides and release notes are written in
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http://asciidoctor.org/docs/asciidoc-syntax-quick-reference/[Asciidoctor syntax].
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For more information see http://asciidoctor.org.
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Conversions from Asciidoctor markup to each of our supported output
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formats is done via the following steps:
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- HTML: Asciidoctor → DocBook XML → xsltproc + DocBook XSL
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- Chunked HTML: Asciidoctor → DocBook XML → xsltproc + DocBook XSL
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- PDF: Asciidoctor
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- HTMLHelp: Asciidoctor → DocBook XML → xsltproc + DocBook XSL → HHC
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- Text: [HTML output] → elinks
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= Requirements
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Ultimately we'd like to reduce the toolchain requirements to AsciidoctorJ
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alone, but that's not yet possible. Additional tooling is required for
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the HTML and HTMLHelp targets. See the Developer's Guide for instructions
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on installing required packages for your platform.
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== AsciidoctorJ (recommended) or Asciidoctor
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Text markup format and publishing toolchain:
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http://asciidoctor.org/
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AsciidoctorJ is a self-contained bundle which includes Asciidoctor and
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JRuby. It can be installed via Chocolatey on Windows, Homebrew on macOS,
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or a .zip extraction anywhere
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(https://bintray.com/asciidoctor/maven/asciidoctorj).
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== DocBook XML and XSL
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Converting from DocBook to HTML and CHM requires the DocBook DTD
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(http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/ToolsSetup.html) and DocBook
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stylesheets
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(http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/InstallStylesheets.html).
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These are available via installable packages on most Linux distributions,
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and Homebrew.
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== xsltproc
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http://xmlsoft.org/xslt/[xsltproc] converts DocBook XML to various
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formats based on XSL stylesheets. It either ships as part of the
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operating system or is available via an installable package on
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most Linux distributions.
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== HTML Help Workshop (Windows only)
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The HTML Help compiler is part of the
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http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21138[HTML Help Workshop]
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from Microsoft. It is used to generate the documentation shipped with
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the Windows installers.
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= Asciidoctor Markup
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The User’s and Developer’s Guides were originally written in DocBook and
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were later converted to http://asciidoc.org/[AsciiDoc]. We subsequently
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switched from AsciiDoc to Asciidoctor. As a result we currently use
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http://asciidoctor.org/docs/migration/[compat mode], but may switch
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to Asciidoctor’s modern markup at a later date.
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Please use the following conventions when writing documentation:
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- Window and dialog box names should be in “curly quotes”.
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- Use Asciidoctor macros for buttons, keys, and menus. Note that these
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are currently experimental:
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-- The button:[Start] button
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-- Press kbd:[Shift+Ctrl+P] to open the preferences dialog.
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-- Select menu:File[Open] from the main menu.
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This ensures that UI elements are shown consistently and lets us apply styles
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to each type of element.
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- Command line examples should reflect the OS:
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+
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+++
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----
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$ echo Linux and UNIX
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----
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----
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C:\> echo Windows
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----
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+++
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Admonitions ([NOTE], [TIP], and [WARNING]) can be used to highlight important
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information. Keep in mind that they interrupt the flow of text by design. Too
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many (especially in a row) are distracting and annoying.
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= HTML Help Alternatives
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Ideally we would ship documentation with Wireshark that is pleasant to
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read, browsable, and searchable. Unfortunately we don't have an easy way
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to do this. The closest we've been able to come is by shipping an HTML
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Help (.chm) file on Windows. However, HTML Help a) is limited to Windows,
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b) crusty on normal displays, and c) really crusty on HiDPI displays.
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The following alternative formats are available, each with advantages
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and disadvantages:
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== WebHelp
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_help[WebHelp] has three main
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dependencies:
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- DocBook XSL, including...
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- webhelpindexer.jar
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- The user's local web browser
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This format generates both HTML pages and JavaScript, which might not run
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reliably on end user machines.
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== PDF
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PDF output is page oriented, with static page sizes. This _usually_ isn't
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a problem with modern reader software. However it doesn't look like we
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can reliably load a PDF file and jump to specific section on some
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platforms. For example, loading +++file:///path/to/user_guide.pdf#location+++
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works in Firefox & Chrome, but not in Safari, Preview, or Internet Explorer.
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== Qt Help
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Qt provides an extensive http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qthelp-framework.html[help system].
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However, to use it we need to generate a Qt Help Project (.qhp) file,
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which isn't currently supported by Asciidoctor or via DocBook XSL.
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The default help application (Qt Assistant) is ugly. We'd probably want
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to write our own help viewer app or integrate help directly via
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QHelpEngine.
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