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37 changes: 37 additions & 0 deletions style/general.rst
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General Conventions
===================

Approach
========

`Diátaxis`_ is a systematic approach to technical documentation authoring.

Following its paradigms,
there are four main types of documentation:
tutorials, how-to guides, technical reference, and explanation.

- A tutorial is a practical activity, in which the student learns by doing
something meaningful, towards some achievable goal.

- A how-to guide helps the user get something done, correctly and safely;
it guides the user’s action.

- Reference material contains propositional or theoretical knowledge that
a user looks to in their work.

- Explanations deepen and broaden the reader’s understanding of a subject.
They bring clarity, light and context.

.. note::

**CrateDB documentation loosely follows Diátaxis paradigms.** There is no
need to adhere to them too strictly across the board when it is not
applicable, or would need too many efforts to refactor or improve
existing material.

It is always good to pursue noble goals, but the focus will be on
working software.

Consistency
===========

Consistency makes collaboration easier. To that end, please try to follow the
applicable general conventions.

Expand All @@ -14,3 +48,6 @@ We have two core principles:

2. Know when to be inconsistent. Break any of these conventions sooner than
doing anything foolish.


.. _Diátaxis: https://diataxis.fr/
12 changes: 0 additions & 12 deletions style/repos.rst
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All Sphinx projects must use a top-level directory named ``docs``.


Repo structure
==============

There are three main types of documentation: tutorials, howtos, and reference.

Tutorials are for step-by-step guides that guide you from beginning to end through a process (e.g., installation or cluster deployment).

Howtos are for guides to performing a single particular operation (e.g., deleting a cluster).

Reference is for reference information (e.g., a list of SQL syntax or an overview of the CrateDB Cloud Console).


.. _reStructuredText: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html
.. _Sphinx: http://sphinx-doc.org/