CHDK End-User's Guide 03 - 16-MAY-08

[Graystar]

Here is the latest version of the CHDK End-User's Guide.

http://www.willylorenzo.com/chdkguide/CHDKGuideInProgress03.pdf


All feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!

[GrAnd]

Good start. I applaud you.

Where is the CHDK software?
Download the files from this location:
Index of /chdk/

I think (but I might be wrong), it would be better to specify more generic links for download, like CHDK.wikia.com.
As that particular link to the build may disappear.

[PhyrePhoX]

wow, really professionally looking, well done

[m2tk]

it looks really nice.
what about .txt version so we could read it at will when on the meadow,
there is so many parameters that it's no point to learn them all so it would be nice to have it with us in camera's file reader...
i've started sth like that but have no time lately (wasted for i.e file browser or rename )
like

..
3.2 On Screen Display menu

 > Show OSD
 Show OSD elements or not. There's a shortcut available to toggle this on/off quickly: half shoot+right.

 > Show RAW/EXP state
 Show status:
 * RAW - Saving of RAW-files is enabled.
 * EXP - Over or Under exposure is detected.

 > Show misc values
 Show values:
 * Z: - Zoom position
 * F: - Focus distance in meters
 * Av: - Aperture value
..

[e2b]

Graystar, you deserve a medal for what you have done. You will deserve another one when you complete the final 200 page version that expands on all the possibilities in CHDK, including ubasic and scripting!

I will be away from the connected world of the www for most of the next four weeks, and am unlikely to see how your manual develops over that time, but I have put a few small suggestions in the attached text file.

[acseven]

Wow, very cool. Maybe it's with your guide that I'll finally manage to know how it all works.

One cool thing to add would be examples of what most of the options do (i.e. pics).

Keep it up

[jeff666]

Good work.

How do you create the PDF?

I'd like to have a manual included in SVN, so the devs can update a particular piece of information as they change the code. This is necessary, or the manual will be out of date pretty soon (which would still be better than our current situation, where new features are mainly described in this forum).

Cheers.

[PhyrePhoX]

i guess he is writing in word and then converting to pdf. i guess you refer to LaTeX or something, "compiling" the docs on the go when rolling out latest builds. could be possible, difficult to maintain though, as it is a new "language" to learn

[scharfis_brain]

proof:
Document properties
Title: "Microsoft Word - CHDK Guide.doc"

[fbonomi]

Wow. This is extremely useful.

If you want (and if you can bear my approximate english), I can contribute a section on uBasic.

I think an approach like "uBasic scripting for non-programmers" would be the best for the general communitiy.

[Graystar]

Thanks everyone for nice comments!

...it would be better to specify more generic links for download, like CHDK.wikia.com.
As that particular link to the build may disappear.

Yes, I want to add a section on finding CHDK info in general.  It would be nice if the downloads were in a more stable location that could be referenced directly.  It doesn’t help a beginner much to be sent to a web site where he then has to figure out where to go to get the downloads.  I might as well tell people to search for “CHDK Downloads” on Google! (which actually takes you directly to the correct page!)

wow, really professionally looking, well done

Thanks.  With the screen reference page I was trying to follow the Canon User Guide.  I’m using Microsoft Word so it’s not nearly as powerful as what Canon is using to create their guides (probably FrameMaker or QuickSilver)  But it should be good enough to produce a guide with accurate references, which is the most important thing.  The last thing a beginner needs is to follow a page reference that’s wrong.  My hope is to produce a guide where you can find the information you’re looking for with one or two page references.

what about .txt version…

Maybe...after the PDF version is done.  The big problem would be page references and finding them easily.  I wonder if someone can draw an ASCII screen map...

Graystar, you deserve a medal for what you have done. You will deserve another one when you complete the final 200 page version that expands on all the possibilities in CHDK, including ubasic and scripting!

I will be away from the connected world of the www for most of the next four weeks, and am unlikely to see how your manual develops over that time, but I have put a few small suggestions in the attached text file.

LOL!  Thanks.  I always figured the final guide would be around 200 pages! :p

Thanks much for the comments on the guide.  I’ll incorporate what I can.

How do you create the PDF?

The PDF is created by printing the Microsoft Word document to a PDF printer.  I use CutePDF but there are other free PDF printers that are more powerful, such as PDFCreator.  These are basically wrappers for GhostScript. 

PDFCreator | pdfforge.org

CutePDF - Create PDF for free, Free PDF Utilities, Save PDF Forms, Edit PDF easily.

If you want (and if you can bear my approximate english), I can contribute a section on uBasic.

That would be great!  I’ll take all the help I can get!

I want to add tutorials so this would be a great start.

[jeff666]

i guess you refer to LaTeX or something, "compiling" the docs on the go when rolling out latest builds. could be possible, difficult to maintain though, as it is a new "language" to learn

Indeed, I thought about LaTeX, but discarded the idea quickly because it would be way to complicated. A good trade-off between usability/looks and ability to update would be HTML.

We'd have each chapter in a separate file and they would be plain text. Both vital features for submitting changes to SVN (binary formats are absolutely inadequate for version-control, means: no word or anything like it).

When we have HTML, people need to modify the files in a plain text editor, no fancy graphical editors as they (most certainly) would mess up the format and render version control useless.

Most other plain-text formats which could be rendered to PDF would be ok, too, though I'd prefer HTML.

Cheers.

[OldDogNewTrick]

Just saw this today.  Don;t have time to read it right now, but do so as soon as I can and then comment.

On a quick glance it looks very good.

Thanks for the effort.

[komarto]

Hi,

I was reading the forum so as a noob i can gather info.
And i just registerd after reading your post to say that the pdf is great!

It would be great if you add "Remote USB" chpater and scripting tutorials (maybe the entire syntax)

Thanks
And keep up the good work
Komarto

[PhyrePhoX]

i seconds this.
maybe also a small tips & tricks sections where some things like this get explained:

- how to save energy (disable LCD - using either headphone jack [careful s3is/s5is owners - stereo headphones prolly arent good) or a piece of plastic) - great for timelapses & the best part: motion detection still works!

oh and by the way, maybe you can add that the bracketing overrides also work in custom timer mode (not only continuous mode). most cameras do have the Custom Timer mode (some dont have the continuous mode i heard) so this is a way to still use bracketing. if you set the timer to whatever time and the number of shots to lets say 5, then 5 bracketed shots will be taken.