How to help testing. A step by step visual guide. (wiki) (in progress)

I did not make that post to shame anyone. I happened to have some time and a little of the knowledge so I’m happy to share what I know.

As for the CLI, having a linux terminal to use makes it all much easier. That run through is really all about getting as many folk as possible in front of a linux terminal.
Fancy stuff like browsers can come later.

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oh, i did not mean that, its an expression no? i just thought your post was very impressive and it felt to me you did it quickly and so well :slight_smile: thanks for sharing your knowledge.

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Nah, I just sat out the back in the sun and grabbed a few screenshots as I set up a VM. I’ve done it lots of times for various reasons so Im quite familiar and I’ve already made all the mistakes so you lot don’t have to :slight_smile:

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:sweat_smile:

I had no idea this would be like writing a technical book !! What have I done !!

:joy:

Thankfully Maidsafe and this forum has already done most of the work !!

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I am finding some limitations gathering this guide using the Discourse platform. One being, it makes for a long post that users must scroll through to get to their desired section. (It also makes it difficult to edit). My fix would be to have links on the contents that jump to that section in the OP.

I was perusing the Discourse forum and it seems the core team is against this proposition as

  1. This is not wikipedia, and
  2. It requires changing core code.

There are a couple of solutions offered

  1. Create each content section on a different post within the topic and then have the OP be a contents page that links to each section’s post.

    • The downside to this is replies are thrown in the mix which affect readability and cause confusion when users are responding to particular items in the guide.
  2. Create multiple topics and link them all via a main contents topic.

    • This idea seems to work as users can then discuss each “chapter” individually.
    • Although this would resolve the previous solution’s downside it would flood the front page with multiple topics concerning this one guide. Not cool. The solution to the flooding problem could be to somehow hide these topics from the front page, but then their visibility, how would beginners find them, another pinned topic :flushed:

Not sure yet how to handle this. I know for myself the editing is rather annoying in terms of scrolling and finding my place. The preview window does not always line up with the editing window etc…

EDIT I think I am going to go with Solution 1 unless anyone else has suggestions, if not I will implement tonight. I realised I can also link in the contents to users various posts in this topic, such as @southside’s virtual machine post and also to other topics that have material…

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This is possible. See Link to a heading within a post or topic - users - Discourse Meta :slightly_smiling_face:

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Oooo. That is cool, nice find, recent too. The threads I looked at were from a couple of years ago and Jeff was dead set against it. (All about knowing keyword searchs :wink: ). Thanks for the info. I will try it out, see how it goes. I do like Jeff’s solution #1 too.

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I need to update my virtual machine post to offer the osboxes option.

I might actually split it in two - or three… Initial set up, osboxes and manual install of Ubuntu 18.04.

Yes I know 20.04 will be released in a few hours - I’m sticking with 18.04 LTS for this - still got 3 yrs support

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The thread I linked is from July 2016 :slightly_smiling_face:

When a post is a wiki, it will show the date of the last edit (in the top right corner of the post) instead of when it was created.

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I did not work on adding any information to the guide tonight.

Instead I played around with anchor tags and headings in the contents. It seems to work pretty well.

I added a “back to contents” href at the end of sections to make navigation easier.

I am trying to concentrate on the structure before adding information as it will make my own organisation easier.

I am not sure if I should keep “Virtual Machines” where it is now (after Desktop) or right after the introduction or perhaps after mobile but before Desktop. ???

I wanted to get all the good stuff installed tonight so I can test the win10 browser for a debug report but alas I am on near 19 hours awake time. Big leak behind the shower wall today, had to rip off all the tiling :flushed: . Till next time.

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Best of luck with the plumbing.
Remember you do not owe anybody anything. Take your time and complete this to YOUR schedule.

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