NixOS / NixOS/nix.dev

Guide for writing guides

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guide
Dominant language
Nix
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

We have a guide for writing tutorials: https://nix.dev/contributing/documentation/writing-a-tutorial

But guides address a different need: looking up contextualised facts to execute common tasks or implement common workflows. That requires a particular structure and writing style, which is usually much more condensed and can leave out many details.

Related discussion on how to structure guides: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/2023-05-04-documentation-team-meeting-notes-45/27874#what-to-do-with-all-the-guides-2

More: https://diataxis.fr/how-to-guides/

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the existing tutorial-writing guide at nix.dev/contributing/documentation/writing-a-tutorial, then read the linked documentation-team discussion and Diátaxis guide. Document the distinct structure and writing style for guides, including how they differ from tutorials; done means the new guidance is published in the documentation site.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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