Updated manual - please

Revok

Hello Julian,

There have been so many major and minor changes to the LXR UI and features that every time I need to look up how something works I have to sift through these forums to come up with a solution. For example: how midi works on this machine is a complete mystery right now (is there a global receive channel? can I turn it off and just receive clock signals? where?)

Would it be possible to bring the manual up to date, or otherwise start a wiki until we get to a firmware version that is more or less final?

I'd be happy to help out myself by proofreading and testing.

Thanks

Han

erwanone

Yeah that would be nice.

fcd72

Id prefer to have all features included first - programming takes a lot of time, documenting the features even more and writing a good Manual takes more time than programming and documenting together.

Its just a waste of time to redo the manual in line with programming over and over again eventually throwing away most of it as features may change. 

macMOE

I think Frank is right. It's not done. Features are still added and changed. Be patient.

Also: checking the forum every now and then gives you a great insight in this machine and lets you participate in the development process. 

borfo

I agree that time would be better spent on development than on the manual.  There's nothing stopping you or someone else from maintaining a list of new features, or updating the manual yourself though.

Revok

Guys, I'm a bit baffled by your instant rejection of my plea.

I realize the LXR is a work in progress, but like most of you (I hope) I built this thing to make music with. I'd like to be able to take the LXR on stage with some degree of confidence. But at this point I'm too worried something won't behave the way I expect it to. And that happens quite often. Sometimes because of a bug, but more often because of a change or added feature in the OS that I'm not aware of. Or because of something that isn't entirely clear to me in the manual. At least in that respect an up to date reference would be a big help for all of us. 

Sure, Julian and the technical contributors need to focus on development, but meanwhile us users could maintain a wiki based on our day-to-day experience with the LXR, for example.

The manual was always a bit vague to begin with. It seems hastily put together and structured from a developer's pov rather than based on actual use cases. That's all very understandable, considering this is basically a one man effort. (And I have to admit it's still a much better read than some of the cryptic Engrish Roland and Yamaha manuals from the 80's I have lying around here  

I write copy for a living (in English as well) and have some experience in UX optimization of instructional texts. I can't program microprocessors or design pcb's for shit, but I can write and I know a thing or two about gear. I'd be happy to do my part with some editorial work on a wiki, and ultimately a manual, as long as I don't have to do it all by myself

So who's with me?

Rvk

borfo

Stuff like this tends to happen when someone decides to make it happen - I'd say if this is something you want to see done, start doing it and you'll probably find people will help you.  Sounds like you're pretty well qualified to do this if you want to see it done.

I imagine step one would be to assemble a list of what's changed since the manual - you could go through the forums and start putting together a list, you might also want to review the changelogs Julian has posted in the firmware thread:  http://forum.sonic-potions.com/discussion/29/latest-firmware-version

Maybe also Julian's list of bugs/changes (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AgngFqfjdS0odFMxS0FtY1lwbF8tYXZlWWpTVkFWRkE&single=true&gid=0&output=html)

As far as I know, the only people working on the official firmware are Julian and Rudeog, so you could probably put a fairly complete list of changes together pretty easily by just reviewing what they've posted.

Then post your list, and see if anyone has anything to add to it, and update the manual. Or make a wiki or whatever.

RE: MIDI Stuff from your first post - in the latest firmware there are a couple of new options in the System menu that allow you to selectively filter input/output, and set midi routing options.  Yes, you can filter out everything except clock by adjusting the midiRX filter setting.

I'm not sure how the LXR manages its MIDI input channel now - I don't really use it with any external controllers.  The global midi channel setting is gone from the system menu, now midi channel can be set for each voice in the last voice settings page.

dtgn

I think the wiki idea is a great one. It totally embodies the DIY / community environnement, would allow users (such as myself) to take part in the projet, and help in keeping the manual up-to-date. I unfortunately don't have enough free time to launch a wiki from scratch, but would definitely participate in occasional writings.

loderbast

at first i thought, i was with fcd and macmoe on this one, but last time i used the newest rudeog fw i was lost for a moment with the midi settings and realized a centeralised place for all the fw changes would be nice. (i had to dig up two or three different threads) didn't take long at all, but killed the flow i had jamming.
maybe it doesn't even have to be a wiki but just one single thread here.

i also like the idea of improving the manual like revok suggested.  i had the lxr very early before the manual came out and had figured out most of the stuff on my own. so i only read the manual once. while i liked it a lot, i am sure it can be improved further.
i would also like a nice printable version to make a little booklet (diy zine style ?) once the firmware doesn't change as often.

fcd72

A Wiki as Manual isn't quite handy for printing, but a good idea as it allows easy substitution of parts while the Firmware grows. Im pretty shure if Revok volunteers as editor in chief julian can't refuse to set up a Wiki ;-)

julian

I tend to stick with fcd72 about updating the manual once the firmware is reaching a stable version.
I would not mind setting up a wiki, it would also be a good place to finally create a troubleshooting guide

do you have any good recommendations for a wiki software?

rudeog

I've used dokuwiki for a while, but only for my own stuff, so not sure how it is with authentication and such. It would be cool to have something use the same authentication as Vanilla, so folks wouldn't need to login twice. I did a quick search and it looks like Mediawiki has an extension to allow the Vanilla authentication:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Vanilla_Authentication
 

julian

We used dokuwiki in my old workplace a little bit.
Never used media wiki
I'll have a closer look.
most stuff I find on a quick glance (dokuwiki or mediawiki from rudeogs link) seems to be only for old vanilla 1.x versions. :-/

dtgn

It would be great, indeed, that we don't have to log twice.

julian

I have set up a simple media wiki page at
http://wiki.sonic-potions.com/

So far I have not found an addon to share the userbase with the vanilla forum. :-/
At the moment you have to register separately.

I don't know how to handle user applications for the wiki in the future. With the current system I'm afraid of bots storming the wiki and spamming ads everywhere

So maybe I'll turn off the 'create account' screen in the future when the bots have spotted the wiki.
The best way would be to find a way to integrate the vanilla userbase, since I have managed to get the application page there nearly spam free and it offers a manual confirmation aproach. (But I'm really dumb when it comes to php and sql coding!)

I also have the current manual in open office format if that would be of any help?

So how to proceed with this? Are you comfortable with media wiki? So far I just set it up on the server and had a quick try at editing the main page.

str

This looks great! Exactly what I was hoping for. I could see the assembly instructions eventually moved to wiki format as well. 

Keeping control of accounts is an important balance. You want new and enthusiastic users to contribute, but there needs to be a high level of quality control. 

Is there a way to have every addition to the wiki queued for approval by a team of mods? 

julian

maybe. my wiki-fu is still weak.
|)

djversus01

maybe this:

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Vanilla_Authentication

rudeog

@djversus01 that version has not been updated to work with Vanilla 2.0

@julian Maybe have the wiki users be manually added based on request, so you could limit it to people who are already participants in the forum?

djversus01

oops! my bad.

Here are some suggestion with some work:

http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/23228/using-jsconnect-to-integrate-with-mediawiki

seems not quite resolved yet. See the last couple of comments. The doubling of page views shouldn't be a huge issue with the number of activity we are talking but, yea.

erwanone

Hey Julian, can you put the manual on the wiki so we can start add things? Maybe a DID YOU KNOW sections as well where people can add there own tips on lxr. For example, i would like to propose the tips i discover (here :  http://forum.sonic-potions.com/discussion/295/a-newchange-kit-tip-for-live-when-sequencer-is-running#Item_3) because i cant find it in the original manual.
Here it's what i wrote, please, fell free to rewrite it :

DID YOU KNOW?
You can change kit without hearing the transition!
-Go in load mode kit
-Press load again to be in save mode .In save mode, you can naviguate thru all the kit and keep the original kit playing.
-Naviguate to a kit next the kit you want to load with the encoder. (If you want to load the 5th kit, go on the 6th kit)
-Press load to go back in load mode. The next move on the encoder will charge the kit instantly.

julian

I will look into getting the manual up there.

I think the main problem is re-formating the whole text to show up in the right format in the wiki :-p

julian

hmmm it seems there is (or used to be) an export tool for OO.
Let's see if I can get it to work...

julian

okay... a quick and dirty version is up.
Images are still missing.
I'll have to see how to configure the wiki to allow image upload and porbably have to manually insert all the images, since the converter does not support it.
but the text is looking promising so far

http://wiki.sonic-potions.com/index.php/LXR_Owners_Manual

str

This is looking great. Time to study up on wiki syntax again... 

erwanone

Thank you!

dtgn

It would be great to add a direct link to the wiki on the sonic potions webpage, in order to get the people to participate (to update the manual with latest rudeog features for exemple).