Using This Document

The author of this help file says:

●   Click on the little books or plus marks next to topics in the table of contents; this will expand/contract the listing of items under that heading.

●   Use the Index and Search functions to quickly find topics of interest. See "Using Search" below.

●   To copy the URL of the current page, copy from the address bar or click on the email icon at top of the document.

●   Use "Previous" and "Next" buttons on the toolbar to go forward and backward through document. The browser's "back" button takes you to the page you last viewed, not to the previous page of the document you're viewing.

●   To locate your position in a document after using search or index or links, click on "Content" and then look for the highlight. It may be necessary to scroll up/down through the table of contents.

Available Docs

All published documentation for A-Shell and related topics are listed at the MicroSabio website on the download...documents page. If that page doesn't answer your questions about what docs are available, or if you need historical docs or docs in unlisted formats, contact MicroSabio with your concerns.

Developer documentation—i.e., for more recent versions of A-Shell than have been formally released—may be available from other locations, which will be noted on the documents page.

Using Search

Along with the index, the search function provides the best way to find what you're looking for. The operators AND, OR, NOT, along with quotes, are supported and work as expected.

●   Searching for quite useful, or quite and useful, will return all the pages that contain both of the words quite and useful.

●   Searching for "quite useful" (with the quotes) will return the pages that contain the phrase quite useful.

●   Searching for quite or useful will return all the pages that contain the word quite plus all the pages that contain the word useful.

●   Searching for quite not useful, or quite and not useful, will return all the pages that contain the word quite and do not contain the word useful.

Note that many common words (this, that, the, to, for, it, them, etc.) are ignored by search unless they part of a quoted string. Also note that the case of the operators (AND, and) is not significant.

Other Tips

●   To get the URL for the page you are currently viewing, copy it from the address bar of your browser or click on the little email icon  on the right end of the tool bar.

●   You can drag the border between the table of contents and the documentation body to create more room for one side or the other.

Updates

The A-Shell documentation is kept very up to date. Jack meticulously documents every change/addition/improvement to A-Shell, writes the text version of ashdevnotes, and posts it with new versions of the software. You can always find the up-to-the-second release notes with the latest versions of A-Shell.

Usually within hours but no more than a day or two, Ty converts the text version of ashdevnotes into an HTML version, and posts it in the same place. All the new or changed material from ashdevnotes is incorporated immediately into the applicable manual(s) of the main A-Shell doc set, and those docs are immediately published and available. The primary A-Shell documentation, the A-Shell Reference, is normally updated no less than once a month.

To read the latest versions of any A-Shell documentation, simply go to the download...documents page and click on the doc that interests you.

Feedback

Just as A-Shell itself is a work in progress, so the documentation is constantly being tweaked, twiddled and improved. Ty works on the docs more or less continuously, and enthusiastically welcomes feedback of all types, particularly:

●   identification of language mistakes (typos, misspellinggs, bad sentences, missing words, etc.)

●   identification of "real" mistakes, namely saying something that isn't true

●   suggestions for better explanations

●   suggestions for index entries

If you have any comments, ideas, suggestions or other kinds of feedback, please post them in the "All Other A-Shell Topics" at the A-Shell forum or email them to us.