Maybe a first article from my side - unsure how to do it - tips appreciated

glennPattonPub

Ummm, I took a side route to all fancy formating stuff. I wrote it up in Word with Pictures made sure it looked legible and went from there to the publishing wizzard. My view was if it can be read with out all fancy stuff it's probably good to go, then use all the auto stuff, just my two pennys worth!

Lost User

Thank you very much! Bruno

OriginalGriff

I keep meaning to do it in Word (or at least Libre Office) but ... I still end up with the online editor. But Word has one big advantage: it has a spell check. The online version doesn't...

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Lost User

Thank you very much. In case I do it in Word (because you doubt about my spelling :-D ) what is needed afterwards? Is it more or less simply copy/paste from word to online Editor to publish?

OriginalGriff

Or just email it to Sean and he'll sort it out. There is a submission template file you can download and open in Word to use as a basis. This page shows the d/l and where to send the file: Submit a new Article[^] I look forward to seeing it!

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OriginalGriff

By the way - if you do it via the online editor, this may help: Using the Article Editor (without losing your hair in handfuls)[^]

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Marc Clifton

0x01AA wrote:

How you would structure this?

Start with everything you want to talk about, put it into an outline of topics/sub-topics. Start writing either linearly or the parts that you're drawn to first. As you're writing, update the outline and see how things begin to evolve -- is it getting too long, is there a natural break for a couple articles evolving? Prune stuff that becomes irrelevant or you don't want to deal with.

0x01AA wrote:

Should I use the online editor

No - although it's evolved a lot, like being able to save drafts, I find online editing of anything to be a PITA, with the exception of lounge posts, haha. I'm an old fart, so believe it or not, I'm still using FrontPage 2003 for editing. Find a decent HTML editor (harder than it looks, maybe someone can make some recommendations here) that can let you do a split screen of the markup and the WYSIWYG. Write it all offline. Hint to save you pain: images go in the same folder as wherever your "article.html" is, as image references in CP are now (and have been for quite a while, but it was not always so) "local". Other hints: * Main topic headers are H2 * Use bold and italic sparingly * variable names, methods, etc., in the text should be wrapped with code tags * code blocks are wrapped in pre tags * watch your image size, CP likes images no bigger than, um, 600 width (I think) which I violate constantly. One cool technique for really big images is to put upload both a small and a 100% image, and add a link to the 100% image, like "click here for full size image." * Personally, I like small code blocks. Don't throw a 500 line class at me, break it into individual method code blocks, in between explain what each method does and why (why is sooo important), etc. More hints: [A Guide To Writing Articles For Code Project](https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/3360/A-Guide-To-Writing-Articles-For-Code-Project) Something I've seen people start doing which I really like is a section at the top of the article on "what you will learn", which is cool, because even if I have no interest in a C-like <1% parser, I might be really interested in how EBNF works and other cool geeky things you are covering. Marc

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Jorgen Andersson

Visual Studio, no honestly.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

OriginalGriff

Jörgen Andersson wrote:

Visual Studio, not honestly.

FTFY!

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Jorgen Andersson

Oh come on, he's using Frontpage ffs. Make a better suggestion instead.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

Lost User

Thank you again.

Quote:

I look forward to seeing it!

The template file is ready to see it :laugh:

Lost User

Thank you very much for this.

Quote:

Something I've seen people start doing which I really like is a section at the top of the article on "what you will learn",

A very good tip. The main Thing should be to Point out the way from EBNF to Wizard and how "intermediate" results of this are connected to the Parser stuff. While writing just the sentence before, I have a Feeling that one of the bigger problems will be my english. Bruno

Lost User

Sorry to disturb, please feel free _not_ to answer :) What do you think about this Basic layout for the article: Content ^Introduction ^What you will learn ^Prerequisites ^What is a Parser ^What is EBNF (Extended Backus–Naur form) ^EBNF to data structure ^From EBNF to wizard ^Using the code :Introduction This article tries to point out how a simple programming language can be defined by a meta language like EBNF (Extended Backus–Naur form) and how a parser and - the main aspect here- a wizard can be build based on such a meta definition. Since the whole topic is very wide, we will concentrate here on the theme "From EBNF to Wizard". The also very intersting part to develop a CompilerCompiler (CoCo) is addressed in a minor way. Minor, because you can find a lot about CoCo in www e.g. - https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/343646/Mathematical-Expression-Parser-Using-Coco-R - .... TODO much more :What you will learn How to create a wizard for a formal defined "programming language" - defined e.g. by a meta language like EBNF. :Prerequisites It is an advantage if you allready have some basics knowledege about parsing (lexical analysis, syntacticals analysis, semantic analysis) and also some knowledge about EBNF. In case you are familar with this stuff you can skip the next two sections and proceed with ^EBNF to data structure :What is a Parser in short Keep in mind, this is a very abreviated introduction. The job of parsing a text can be splitted into three Jobs: 1. Lexcial Analysis 2. Syntactical Analysis 3. Semantic Analysis While https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compiler#Lexikalische\_Analyse does describe these three points togehter (english wiki not) I feel free to translate and summarize them here instead of giving links to wiki: TODO :What is EBNF (Extended Backus–Naur form) TODO :EBNF to data structure TODO :From EBNF to wizard TODO, the big part here :Using the code ::Some notes about the code The code is far away to be optimal or ready for production. Also it will break a lot of times SOLID principles. Why I'm doing it like this: The main target is to show in a very easy/direct way the relations of the involved aspects, without hiding the essentials by using over engineered code. Also the code is originally developed with Embarcadero Studio in c++ and to be more up to date I migrated all the stuff to c# :Points of Interest TODO :History V#.# Inital release yyyy/mm/dd BTW: I decided t

Lost User

Dear OG, a shy question: Is it ok for you if I send you a draft to proofread? I think you are the only one who can understand my strange english. I'm aware that this is really a big request and so I will understand very well if you decline. Bruno

OriginalGriff

Not a problem: you have my email. Might take me a day or two to proofread it though! :laugh:

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Lost User

Wow, thank you very much!

Quote:

Might take me a day or two

Two days :laugh: I need some more days (x10, x20) to be ready, I'm still starting on that. The whole thing I have to develop in Embarcadero c++ and migrate it then to c# for the article so that someone may read it

OriginalGriff

They are a lot quicker to read than to write! :laugh:

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Marc Clifton

No problem. The outline is great. Something my readers have commented that they liked, which you elude to with the section on "some notes about the code" is some light (and lighthearted) discussion of the compromises, rabbit holes, and other things I did (including the wrong ones) that I discovered along the way. BTW, if you'd like me to proofread anything (regarding your concern about English) I'd be happy to offer my editing services. Also, there's this [Table of Contents generator](https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/1532/HTML-Table-Of-Contents-Generator) that I use for large articles. It has a couple bugs (no symbols in the headers, and popping two levels breaks further link generation) but otherwise it's a solid tool and there's some comments about how to fix those bugs in the article itself. Marc

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Lost User

While writing on it I think I feel 1:1 what you mean :laugh: At the Moment I wish I would have never announced that I will write an article on this. But because I did it, I have to go through it :sigh: Bruno

OriginalGriff

Take your time. If it's worth doing, it's not worth rushing - and it can help to walk away for a day or more and then re-read what you have written so far.

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