[snoxbox]

This is not really a feature suggestion, more of a supplement to the documentation, but I think it would be good if we could implement some more commenting in all, or at least the most modified, xml files. I'm a coder, and have done a lot of configuration of XBMC, so I have no problem understanding the xml's, but I think a lot of newbs or less technically minded people would find some more commenting handy.

For me, most things are easily understandable by the description tag or other elements, but I'm not too sure about other users, and as far as I'm concerned, with an open source project that is as highly customisable as XBMC is, more documentation is better than less. And with the final release of V2.0, I think this would be a good addition to the already detailed user documentation. Some of you might think this is overkill though. And perhaps for the most used customisations (e.g. weather on the home screen etc.), those additions could be added in, but commented out. I'm willing to add as much commenting as I can in the areas that I know. But perhaps the best way of doing this would be to have a wiki, so anyone can go and add commenting to the xml's.

My opinion anyway.

[jmarshall]

xml is only used for:

1. Skins. The skin engine is documented on the manual, but could always do with more concrete examples (and fixing any old out of date ones) - go for it!

2. AdvancedSettings.xml - this is also well documented in the manual, and as it's advanced, is not necessary for most users to know about.

3. Keymap.xml - the format is documented both in the file, and in the manual, but more could be used, along with some example keymap files for download etc. Our new manual supports file uploads so this shouldn't be a problem to add - go for it!

4. Other xml's that people don't need to be editting

In the end, I think we have a great repository for this. Dankula et al have done a fantastic job converting the old manual (manual.xboxmediacenter.de) to the new fandangled one (http://www.xbmc.xbox-scene.com/wiki). It just needs some more polishing and more examples added.

It would be fantastic if you are willing to contribute to this

Cheers,
Jonathan

[snoxbox]

1. I agree. This is mainly where i was looking at adding commenting.

2. I sort of agree. I guess for most non-demanding users, they dont need to touch this. And most advanced users will know what they are doing. But I believe there are/will be some instances where a non-tech savvy person may want to add stuff to this. I just think some commenting and examples might result in less "Help. How do I do this..." threads.

3. Agreed. I find the keymap.xml fairly straightforward. Maybe a few examples will help others.

4. Agreed.

And I agree that the manual is great. But I do think it needs a bit more 'advertising'. I think there should be a clear link at the top of these forums, as well as the xbox-scene forums. I've seen a few people on here who didn't know where the new manual was. And it might be worthwhile to include a textfile in T3CH's releases telling the users exactly where it is.

I'll try and add some stuff to the manual, but I'm quite busy at the moment, and I'm preparing to delve in some XBMC development, which will make me a lot busier. Speaking of which, I may be asking you a few pointers on how to get started with development if that's alright. (Not how to code)

[jmarshall]

I agree it needs advertising alot more - particularly since we've changed the address.

Will see if I can get the forum maintainers to jack something up.

Hopefully if T3CH reads this he/she will make sure there's a decent link in there nfo's.

Oh, and any dev questions are most welcome - you can catch me on IRC from time to time, or post in the dev section. Best just to dive in once you have a debug environment setup and step through the main app loop to get an idea on what sort of things are going on.

Cheers,
Jonathan