User talk:Duggabe: Difference between revisions
| Line 29: | Line 29: | ||
==Help others to Learn== | ==Help others to Learn== | ||
I have found that the best way to learn about a technical subject is to study a turorial about it. However, there were very few tutorials, and they were out of date because of newer software releases of GNU Radio. | I have found that the best way to learn about a technical subject is to study a turorial about it. However, there were very few tutorials, and they were out of date because of newer software releases of GNU Radio. | ||
==Adopting a Style== | |||
It was rather surprising to me that there was no formal guidance for the style of the Block Docs or for tutorials. As I started working on the Block Docs, I derived a skeleton format which covered all of the items I found in various blocks. That gave a consistent layout from one block to the next. | |||
For the Tutorials, there was much more latitude to create / use my own style. My basic approach was to write for a beginner with only the Prerequisites as a background. Other than that, I used an "Assume nothing" approach. | |||
Revision as of 17:13, 12 September 2022
Tech writing presentation
This is a DRAFT.
Preparation
- GNU Radio Main Page
https://wiki.gnuradio.org/index.php/Main_Page
- A Newbie's Guide to the GNU Radio Universe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxAW-WzuNy0
Background
- Amateur radio operator since 1953
- Electrical Engineering degree 1961
- Computer programmer since 1962
- Retired 2003
What is GNU Radio
GNU Radio is a free and open-source software development toolkit that provides Digital Signal Processing blocks to implement Software Defined Radios.
Why did I get involved?
I discovered GNU Radio when reading an amateur radio manual. I thought it was a fascinating concept to use software instead of hardware to create a radio. After reading the "discuss-gnuradio" mailing list for a while, I noticed a recurring topic of "GNU Radio documentation is terrible". Looking at it, I had to agree, and decided to do something about it.
Learn by Doing
- When I got involved, the switch to using a Wiki was new. Many of the blocks were just skeletons with no real content. For example, https://wiki.gnuradio.org/index.php?title=Cvsd_encoder is yet to be documented.
- I had to learn to use MediaWiki.
- I had to learn what a block did before I could write about it!
- After the first year of working on them, I had done about 150 blocks.
Help others to Learn
I have found that the best way to learn about a technical subject is to study a turorial about it. However, there were very few tutorials, and they were out of date because of newer software releases of GNU Radio.
Adopting a Style
It was rather surprising to me that there was no formal guidance for the style of the Block Docs or for tutorials. As I started working on the Block Docs, I derived a skeleton format which covered all of the items I found in various blocks. That gave a consistent layout from one block to the next.
For the Tutorials, there was much more latitude to create / use my own style. My basic approach was to write for a beginner with only the Prerequisites as a background. Other than that, I used an "Assume nothing" approach.