* Documentation Although most of the concepts from Microsoft.NET can be applied to the completed Mono platform, we do need to have a complete set of free documentation written specifically for Mono. The documentation license we have chosen is the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), the standard for most documents in the free software world. We need documentation on a number of topics: * Class Library documentation We are moving to a new setup for documenting the class libraries, and you can read about it here. There are two classes of documentation: free documentation for existing .NET classes and documentation for the classes that we have developed on top of .NET. There is a large body of documentation that came from the ECMA standarization effort that has been checked into CVS. It does not contain everything Mono and .NET have, so they need to be updated and augmented. ** Gtk# documentation We also have a large body of class libraries that are specific to Mono, for example the documentation for Gtk#. We have checked in stub documentation for Gtk# into the CVS repository (on gtk-sharp/doc) and we need volunteers to help populate the documentation for it. Since Gtk# is a wrapper for Gtk, plenty of documentation exists in the Gnome developer site. To get started: You need to download Gtk# from the CVS repository. The module name is `gtk-sharp'. You can obtain a copy from both the CVS repository or the anonymous CVS repository. To pull your copy type: 
        	cvs co gtk-sharp
Documentation lives in gtk-sharp/doc/en. The "en" indicates the English language, the first one we are targeting. We can later do translations, but for now we are focusing on a single language. In that directory you will find the documentation organized by namespaces. One directory per namespace. In the directories you will find one XML file per class that needs to be documented. The mission is to fill in the data with useful information. Feel free to grab liberally information from the Gtk documentation from: http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/ Of course, the API does not apply directly. It only applies at a foundational level, so you can not really just copy and paste. Summaries, and remarks sections can probably be lifted with little or no effort. Gtk# uses properties to represent get/set operations in the C API, so you can also use some bits from there. Most of the documentation contains already place holders for text, we use the internationally approved phrase for this purpose, `To be added'. So the quest is to remove all of the "To be added" strings with information with resembles as closely as possible the toolkit reality. *** The pieces to be filled. Summaries are one or two line descriptions of the element (class, struct, interface, method, field, event, delegate), and its used to render summary pages. So it has to be short. The "remarks" section is used to describe in detail the element. **** Tags. As you document Gtk# you will have a number of tags that you can use inside the summary and remarks sections, these are: 
        
<para> </para>
Used to separate paragraphs. 
  
<paramref name="param_name"/>
Used to reference a formal parameter to a function. 
  
<see cref="T:SomeTypeName"/>
Use this to reference a type, this will include an hyper link to the page for type SomeTypeName. For example, to reference "System.Enum", do: 
	<see cref="T:System.Enum"/>

<see cref="P:SomeTypeName.Property"/>
Use this to reference a property, this will include an hyper link to the page for the property `Property' of type `SomeTypeName'. For example, to reference the BaseType property in System.Type, do: 
	<see cref="P:System.Type.BaseType"/>

<see cref="M:SomeTypeName.Method(type,type)"/>
Use this to reference a method, this will include an hyper link to the page for the method `Method' of type `SomeTypeName'. For example, to reference the ToString method in System.Object, do: 
	<see cref="M:System.Object.ToString()"/>

<see langword="keyword"/>
Use this to link to a keyword in the C# language, for example to link to `true', do: 
	<see langword="true"/>

<example> ... </example>
Use example to insert an example. The example can contain explanatory text and code. 
<code lang="C#">.. </code>
Use this to provide a sample C# program, typically used within the <example> tags. When providing examples, try to provide a full example, we would like to be able to have a button to compile and run samples embedded into the documentation, or pop up an editor to let the user play with the sample. You can link to an example like this: 
	<code lang="C#" source="file.cs"> </code>

<item>

<list type="bullet">  </list>
Use this to create lists. Lists contains <item> elements which have to contain <term> containers. 
<list type="table"> </lits>
            <listheader>
              <term>YOUR FIRST COLUMN</term>
              <description>YOUR DESCRIPTION</description>
            </listheader>
For two-column tables. Inside use: 
<item>
	<term>First</term>
	<description>First descritpion</description>
</item>
<item>
	<term>Second</term>
	<description>Second descirption</description>
</item>
** Words of warning. A few words of warning and advice for class documentors: A well-documented API can ease hours of frustration; as Mono matures, robust and complete class library documentation will become increasingly important. As you write API documentation, whether it is embedded in source files or in external Monodoc XML, please keep the following in mind: Plagarism, even if it's unintentional, is a Bad Thing(TM). Microsoft's .NET Framework Class Library documentation is an excellent resource for understanding the behavior and properties of a type, and a lot of hard work went in to creating this (copyrighted) resource. Please don't copy from Microsoft's reference when documenting a type. To avoid this, I (jbarn@httcb.net) suggest that you read the complete Microsoft documentation for a type, ponder it for a while, and write the Mono documentation in your own words. While it's certainly okay to refer to the Microsoft documentation to clarify your understanding of behavior or properties, please don't open the Microsoft docs and refer to them for each member you document. The best way of documenting is to read our source code implementation and explain in your own words what our implementation does, and what the user can do with it. There's a lot of domain expertise among the class library contributors; let's put the same personal stamp on the class library documentation that we have on the class libraries themselves.