Category: Pedias

Discussions are understanding-oriented articles aimed at explaining a particular topic. They are encyclopedic, intended to provide an overview of the subject at hand and various perspectives of it. A discussion article might be read casually for leisure, rather than being used as reference while coding.

Writing Discussions

Besides the general style considerations, discussion articles should value:

Overview

Discussions are meant to provide a clear overview of their subject matter, and be accordingly organized into easily navigable sections.

Diversity

Discussions should cover multiple workflows, approaches and perspectives to the topic.

Focus

Discussions should maintain focus on the subject at hand, linking to other resources such as dedicated articles when a section starts running too long.

While in general, discussion articles can take a wide variety of forms, the following canonical form is designed for articles covering a software package, application or libraries, and will often be applicable in the NixOS Wiki:

1. Introduction: a general overview.
2. Usage: a practical overview of different approaches to installing, configuring and operating the software, linking to more comprehensive guides.
3. Internals: a theoretical overview of the internal architecture of the software, including critical files and directories, processes and objects.
4. Development: a project overview for potential contributors, including an overview of the source-code directory structure, development process, issue tracking and the developer community.
5. History: a historical overview of the software, including an overview of the origins and past development of the software, and the broader historical context, such as precedents and antecedents.