Chapter 2. Non-Package Development

Table of Contents

Developing Adélie Documentation
Authorship of Documentation
Configuring Your Environment
Spread the Word

There are a number of ways to contribute to the development of Adélie Linux that do not involve packaging. This chapter will introduce you to other Adélie Linux projects and how to set up a development environment for each one.

In this section, you will learn:

  • How documentation and guides like this one are authored; and

  • How you can configure your environment to edit and author documentation for Adélie Linux.

The Adélie Linux Documentation Set, including the guide that you are reading, is written in a format called DocBook. DocBook is somewhat similar to HTML in that it uses tags to define the semantics of the document, but the tags DocBook uses are different from HTML's and focus on creation of books and manuals.

The main Documentation Set is written in English, but we are happy to accept translations of our documentation into other languages.

You can contribute corrections, additions, or translations of any portion of our documentation by emailing the adelie-docs mailing list with your patch, or by creating a merge request on the Documentation GitLab page. For more information about using Git to create patches and merge requests, see chapter 3.

You will need to install the xmlto package to ensure your changes leave the documentation syntactically valid. After making your changes, run the xmlto command on the primary file (for this guide, develguide.xml) and ensure there are no errors.

There are many ways to spread the word about Adélie Linux. Talk to your friends about Adélie Linux and the benefits of libre software, including security, speed, control, and ability to use the latest features without purchasing new computers every year. Have civil discussions on forums, newsgroups, and social media. If you're a student, talk to your school's Computer Science department and see if they are interested in a lab with Adélie Linux. By spreading the word, you're helping more people learn and spreading our ideas and goals worldwide. Thank you!