Reference

Contributing to the docs

How this manual is built, the conventions its pages follow, and how to draw a figure.

The manual lives in its own GitHub repository. GitHub Pages builds the site from the master branch with Jekyll. To contribute, fork the repository, make your changes on a branch, and open a pull request against master.

What to write

Describe the mod as it is. Write about the current master of the mod, and check what you write against its code. If the code cannot confirm something, leave it out.
Write for players. Plain words, short sentences, “you” for the reader. Say what a control does and when you would use it.
Say what is missing. A button that the aircraft shows but the mod does not simulate gets “not simulated”, nothing more.
Describe things in your own words rather than quoting outside publications.

Building it locally

With Docker, from the repository folder:

docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/srv/jekyll" jekyll/jekyll:pages jekyll build
python -m http.server 4000 --directory _site

Then open http://localhost:4000. Move Gemfile and Gemfile.lock aside while the build runs; the image brings its own GitHub Pages gems.

Writing a page

Pages are Markdown in the folder of their section, such as weapons/cannon.md. Each starts with front matter:

---
title: M230 cannon
lead: One sentence under the title.
keywords: [words, the, search, should, match]
seats: [PLT, CPG]          # the crew stations it applies to
redirect_from:
  - /weapons-m230.html     # an old address that should land here
---

Add the page to the menu in _data/nav.yml.

To show	Write
A key binding	`{% include key.html id="fza_ah64_wasGun" %}`. The bindings are in `_data/keybinds.yml`; Arma’s own have `vanilla: true`.
An MPD button	`L3`{: .vab}
Text on a display	`FUEL`{: .mpd}
A procedure	A numbered list followed by `{: .steps}`
A tip, note, caution or warning	A blockquote followed by `{: .tip}`, `{: .note}`, `{: .caution}` or `{: .warning}`
A wide table	Wrapped in `<div class="table-wrap" markdown="1">` and `</div>`, with blank lines inside
The UFD	`<div class="ufd"><pre>...</pre></div>`
A figure	`{% include fig.html id="mpd-fuel" %}`

Links to other pages and images go through relative_url:

[TADS]({{ '/targeting/tads/' | relative_url }})
<img class="sym" src="{{ '/assets/icons/fcr/mpd/nts.png' | relative_url }}" alt="Next to shoot">

A heading gets an anchor from its text, or set one with ## Heading {#id}. Inside a table cell or list item, {#id} does not work: use <span id="id"></span>. An include used in a table cell must not end with a line break.

Figures

The MPD and IHADSS figures are drawn from the mod’s own source by the scripts in _tools/figures, so they match what the aircraft shows. Each figure is a spec in _data/figures/<id>.yml with its page state, caption and numbered callouts; the build writes the picture to _includes/figures/. The callout lines stop at the edge of what they point to.

See _tools/figures/README.md for what to install and how to write a spec. Rebuild only the figures you change: rebuilding the others moves their callouts by a pixel or two.

Developer pages

The developer pages are archived from the 2.x manual. Each says at the top which parts no longer match the mod.