Styles documentation update

[foxfirefey]

So, as a recap after about a week of work, there are now two main documentation bodies springing up for S2. I think there's currently enough space both for beginner and more advanced level documentation within those two sets.

S2 Guide: The Language Tutorial is filling out nicely as a first draft. However, the more I work at it in its current state, the more I think it's going to need to be rearranged for better flow at teaching beginners. The Style System Overview has a little bit of content, but is still kind of clunky. But the Troubleshooting section has some pretty awesome stuff right now, if I do say so myself. Haven't yet started on the Core2 Overview, Backend, Glossary, or Language Reference (a more concise version of the Language Tutorial, for cheatsheet checking or referral by people who already know programming).

S2 Cookbook: This starts out with a testbed layout that lets people have a really simple environment to test out code bits. A couple example pages starting to get filled in are strings and on Dates.

Other miscellanea:

* matgb has pointed out that the advanced page points to defunct documentation URLs. What's worse, the layout editor does, too. Hopefully we can point it at the S2 guide instead, or the core2 layer documentation.
* Doing this documentation has also given me several ideas for built in functions to add. For instance, S2 has a split function for strings, but no "join" function for string arrays. Why is there no join function! Does anybody have any input on that?
* Some people have already been diving in to tweaking and editing! Thank you murklins and azurelunatic for your assistance. And thank you everybody who gave your input on the last post on this topic!
* ninetydegrees has some suggestions up regarding this area: Your Layers page: redesign layers table as a tree , Styles: Add links to Your Layers, and Improve the S2 Compiler. They're making me think that instead of wee changes, each area should just go through a redesign. What do you envision the advanced customization area operating like?

Comments

[murklins]

afuna can correct me if I'm wrong here, but regarding the split function and its missing opposite, I think what may have happened there was that LJ's S2 string class was seriously deficient, so an effort was made to improve the string functions, specifically. In LJ, we constantly bemoaned the way we had to iterate over each character of a string in order to do the simplest string operations, so when the opportunity came to give the string class some useful methods, it was really exciting! I may have wept a little. So possibly, through all the joyful tears, no one noticed that arrays of strings were now missing the natural complement of split.

PS If you want to dole out any other tasks to me, I am more than willing to tackle something.

[ninetydegrees]

What do you envision the advanced customization area operating like?

-- Being able to create/delete several layers/styles at the same time. Being able to delete something with an AJAX-like box would be awesome too.
-- Being able to copy layers/styles to new ones or copy and replace existing ones.
-- Sorting styles and layers however you want it: date created, number, alphabet, most used, inheritance, etc.
-- Grouping styles according to the layers they use (display them in a tree too) so that all styles based on say Transmo could be grouped together.
-- Indicating which layers are used in styles: this layer is used with layer x and layer y in style z, with links to edit all of these and to remove the layer from the style without having to go to the styles page.
-- Same thing for styles: this style uses layers x, y and z.
-- Being able to rename or edit or do anything with styles without loading the edit style page. I find this really, really annoying. I would love to have a box open below the style whenever you want to edit it. A bit like the way crossposting was thought of in the new update page.
-- 'use' status indicated more clearly. (i.e. spelled out or with an image, colors, whatever)
-- And if I go crazy, having layers and styles side by side and being able to drag and drop a layer name for it to be automatically included in a style.
-- And for more crazy, being able to edit several layers in the compiler at the same time (via tabbed browsing) and to load a public layer in the compiler for you to copy/paste code into another layer.

So basically, better display options, more editing features and much more interoperability between layers and styles.