Style Guide: Enumerations Pages

This guide provides specific instructions for editing or adding your own content to each section of an Enumeration page in this wiki.

Enumeration pages should provide basic information about the SDL enumerations to allow users to most effectively utilize them in their projects.

General Guidelines

Please observe the following for all enumeration pages:

• Do not post anything that you do not have permission to post publicly.
• Sections should have adequate details to make them clear and useful while remaining brief wherever possible. Code Examples and Remarks may be more extensive than other sections if necessary.
• Please remember to keep it accurate, simple, and easy to understand.

• Do not remove, modify, or add to the markup above the page title (processing instructions (ie: #pragma, #acl), red markup, etc.) except:

  • On CategoryCompat pages, place the following markup above the page title and below the processing instructions or DRAFT markup, if present:

  • ||<tablewidth="100%" #000000 style="color: #FF8C00;" :> <<BR>>~+For Backward Compatibility Only+~<<BR>><<BR>> ||

• Do not remove, modify, or add section headings unless specifically mentioned below.
• In general, we prefer that you do not remove or modify existing content unless it is clearly incorrect or out of date.

• Pages with red at the top are in progress and will often contain unusual content, formatting, or notes. Please do not remove or modify these. That will all be corrected/removed upon final edit.

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Getting Started

1. Begin by going to the page you wish to edit and selecting blue or blue in the left column to begin editing.

   • Markup info provided here is specifically for use in the Text editor but should work in both.

2. Scroll down in the edit window to the section(s) you want to edit. Add your content following the conventions in this style guide.

3. Find information relevant to your content in the style guide sections below and apply the appropriate formatting as you edit.

4. Preview your work as you go by clicking blue in the left column. Preview often and any time you are unsure of formatting.

   • (Keep in mind that a few things (like Color2 text) don't preview exactly as they parse.)

5. Save your work by clicking blue in the left column after you are satisfied with your content and have filled in the Comment field under the editing box.

For assistance with editing, saving, or wiki-appropriate markup see the Wiki Basics Style Guide or contact us at <ANTI SPAM wiki AT libsdl DOT org>.

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Editing Specific Sections

Title

Do not edit the Title.

The Title section consists of the page heading and its markup:

• = SDL_EnumerationName =

For enumeration pages this is the name of the enumeration being described on the page and should match the address of the page.

Example: The page address http://wiki.libsdl.org/moin.cgi/SDL_EventType should have matching title SDL_EventType and describe the SDL_EventType structure.

If you believe a change is necessary please submit Feedback from that page or contact us at <ANTI SPAM wiki AT libsdl DOT org>.

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Description

The Description section immediately follows the page title and does not have it's own heading.

Enumeration descriptions begin with:

• An enumeration of

  • or very rarely

  A hint that specifies

• followed by a clear and concise description of what the enumeration (or hint) is.

Note: Information presented in this section is meant to be limited. Extended description information for more complicated enumerations should be placed in the Remarks section instead.

• The Description should not contain a link to the Remarks section even if additional information is located there.

Note: Exceptions to the basic description are very unusual. Follow established patterns in the wiki (based on similar pages which may be found by text search) whenever possible if an exception seems appropriate.

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Table of Contents

Do not edit the Table of Contents.

The Table of Contents consists of the following markup and is generated automatically on the parsed page.

• <<TableOfContents()>>

If you believe a change is necessary please submit Feedback from that page or contact us at <ANTI SPAM wiki AT libsdl DOT org>.

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Values

The Values section provides basic information about each value in the enumeration and is presented in table format.

The basic format is as follows:

||value1||description||
||value2||description||
...
||valueN||description||

Markup: Use basic table markup. All text in the table is left-justified. Do not use bold.

• The first column contains the value name, usually in all caps (format as in the API).

• The second column contains a simple description of each value using some specific formatting conventions.

  • red All descriptions begin with a lower case letter, end without a period, and are generally not complete sentences.

Example: SDL_BlendMode, SDL_HintPriority, SDL_PowerState, SDL_WindowFlags

Action: There are a few content-dependent conventions we have chosen for consistency across pages. See the tables below for details.

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Code Examples

The Code Examples section is meant to contain simple, meaningful examples of how to use the enumeration in a program.

• Unlike other sections, which should rarely require editing once DRAFT is removed, this section is expected to change over time.

This is one of the few sections that is intended to grow and adjust as users discover more information about an enumeration that would be helpful to share with other users.

For the most part the contents of the Code Examples section will be user-generated and this section will remain as-is until users input their examples.

Please see the Code Examples Style Guide for details on editing this section.

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Remarks

The Remarks section is meant to contain additional information that did not fit in the other sections as well as comments regarding the behavior and use of the enumeration in real-world applications.

• Unlike other sections, which should rarely require editing once DRAFT is removed, this section is expected to change over time.

This is one of the few sections that is intended to grow and adjust as users discover more information about how an enumeration behaves under different circumstances.

For the most part the contents of the Remarks section will be user-generated and this section will remain as-is until users input their comments.

Note: This is not an appropriate place to post questions, suggestions, bugs, or commentary. Please use the other communication channels available to you, especially the forums and mailing lists, for these types of remarks.

Please see the Remarks Style Guide for details on editing this section.

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Related Enumerations

The Related Enumerations section provides a list of enumerations specifically referenced by the enumeration or otherwise closely related to it. This section is very rarely used.

This list should include:

• other enumerations that are specifically referenced in the enumeration (may never occur)

• other enumerations that are indirectly referenced by or very closely related to the enumeration

  • (ie: the enum is not used as a value but its values are used to fill in a value or they are different aspects of the same idea)

  • This is very uncommon.

This list should not include:

• the primary enumeration on that page
• every enumeration that might be considered "related" to the enumeration or any other listed enumerations

  • Including too many would make these lists much less valuable.

• all enumerations of similar type
• all enumerations of a related category
• enumerations that are indirectly related

  • (ie: it might be common to use them together)

• enumerations that do not have a page in the wiki
• non-enumerations

  • (ie: do not include functions or structures in this list)

Markup: Each line should begin with a single blank space and a period followed by the enumeration name enclosed in double brackets to create a hyperlink.

• Note: Do not include empty parentheses after the name.

• The basic format for the Related Enumerations list is:

== Related Enumerations ==
 .[[SDL_EnumerationName]]
 .[[SDL_EnumerationName]]

• Note: The heading was included to more clearly illustrate the blank space before the period at the beginning of each list line. Without this markup the format will not parse correctly.

Example: SDL_Keycode, SDL_Scancode

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Related Structures

The Related Structures section provides a list of structures (or unions) specifically referenced by the enumeration or otherwise closely related to it.

This list should include:

• structures that specifically reference the enumeration
• structures that indirectly reference but are closely related to the enumeration

  • This is uncommon.

This list should not include:

• every other structure that might be considered "related"

  • Including too many would make these lists much less valuable.

• all structures of similar type
• all structures of a related category
• structures that are indirectly related

  • (ie: it might be common to use them together)

• structures that do not have a page in the wiki
• non-structures

  • (ie: do not include functions or enumerations in this list)

Markup: Each line should begin with a single blank space and a period followed by the structure name enclosed in double brackets to create a hyperlink.

• Note: Do not include empty parentheses after the name.

• The basic format for the Related Structures list is:

== Related Structures ==
 .[[SDL_StructureName]]
 .[[SDL_StructureName]]

• Note: The heading was included to more clearly illustrate the blank space before the period at the beginning of each list line. Without this markup the format will not parse correctly.

Example: SDL_AudioFormat, SDL_BlendMode, SDL_PixelFormatEnum

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Related Functions

The Related Functions section provides a list of functions specifically associated with that enumeration or otherwise closely related to it.

• In general, a "Related Function" is one that uses the given enumeration.

This list should include:

• functions that use or are otherwise very closely related to the enumeration

This list should not include:

• every other function that might be considered "related"

  • Including too many would make these lists much less valuable.

• all functions of similar type or action
• all functions of a related category
• functions that are indirectly related (ie: a similar function that does not use the structure)
• functions that do not have a page in the wiki
• non-functions (ie: do not include structures or enumerations in this list)

Markup: Each line should begin with a single blank space and a period followed by the function name enclosed in double brackets to create a hyperlink.

• Note: Do not include empty parentheses after the function names in this section. They are all functions so it should be understood/unnecessary.

• The basic format for the Related Functions list is:

== Related Functions ==
 .[[SDL_FunctionName]]
 .[[SDL_FunctionName]]

• Note: The heading was included to more clearly illustrate the blank space before the period at the beginning of each list line. Without this markup the format will not parse correctly.

Example: SDL_AudioStatus, SDL_HintPriority, SDL_TextureAccess

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Footer

The Footer section consists of a horizontal rule followed by two links separated by a comma.

Markup:

----
[[CategoryEnum]], [[CategoryHeader]]

• where CategoryEnum is the same for every enumeration page and CategoryHeader is enumeration-specific with Header varying based on the header file containing the enumeration (see below).

red Category names do not always match the header file name. Please consult the following table for the correct name to use so the enumeration will appear in the correct list(s).

Action 1: Do not edit the CategoryEnum link!

Action 2: The CategoryHeader link may be edited if the page still says [[CategoryHeader]] (as on a new page) or if the structure has been relocated to another header (very rare).

red There are a few exceptions to this rule (pages with a category name that does not match their header file according to the table). These have been determined by the SDL team. Please do not change an existing page's category name simply because it does not match its header file. If you are concerned that a name is incorrect please submit your concern in the forums or mailing lists or contact us at <ANTI SPAM wiki AT libsdl DOT org> to confirm the change first.

Markup: Replace CategoryHeader with the appropriate category name from the table that follows, or contact us at <ANTI SPAM wiki AT libsdl DOT org> to find out what category name to use if you are unsure or if the category appears to be missing.

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Special

This section contains details for special formatting circumstances that are best described separately from the average enumeration page. In general these guidelines should be used in conjunction with the above.

Hint Pages

In some cases Hints are formatted slightly differently than enumerations. Use the following formatting specifics in addition to those listed above for all CategoryHints pages::

Action 1: All Hint pages contain an additional section not present on enumeration pages - Default

Markup: Add the following section to all CategoryHints pages between the Values and Code Examples sections.

• == Default ==

• Action: Immediately under this section include at least one sentence beginning with the following, and describing the default state, if any, for that hint:

  • By default...

Example: SDL_HINT_FRAMEBUFFER_ACCELERATION, SDL_HINT_RENDER_SCALE_QUALITY

Action 2: The Footer section of a Hint page follows the same guidelines as for an enumeration page with the following differences:

• Use [[CategoryDefine]], [[CategoryHints]] as the link pair at the bottom instead.

• The table above is irrelevant to this section since they are all the same.

Note: To date there are no Related Enumerations, Related Structures, or Related Functions listed on any Hint page. Should there be, follow the same general guidelines as for enumerations.

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