I think for now PDF would still be used by a good amount of users since R users are used to read PDF manual for packages that don't have websites.
Nowadays Github pages + pkgdown combination is getting more and more popular so we would see a trend soon towards web hosted docs for R packages. On Thu, Aug 29, 2019 at 8:58 PM Aaron Markham <aaron.s.mark...@gmail.com> wrote: > pkgdown makes some nice looking R microsites. Good idea. Do you know > if many R users would still want the pdf or have things moved to use > websites for reference like this? > One of the nice things about the new pipelines for docs is that > they're not wrapped by Sphinx, so our R contributors will have an > easier time testing and adding this kind of feature. > > On Thu, Aug 29, 2019 at 5:34 PM Yuan Tang <terrytangy...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Thanks for the update, Aaron. > > > > Regarding the R docs, one suggestion I have is to use pkgdown package ( > > https://pkgdown.r-lib.org/index.html) to automatically generated the > > documentation pages (tutorials, API reference, etc.). I've seen huge > > adoption of this package being used for documentations in the R > community. > > > > > > On Thu, Aug 29, 2019 at 8:26 PM Aaron Markham <aaron.s.mark...@gmail.com > > > > wrote: > > > > > Hi everyone, > > > > > > I'm very excited to share a preview and the pull requests for a new > > > website and new documentation pipelines. > > > > > > The following link is using Apache's new staging site setup. It is > > > built from the new docs publishing pipelines in CI where a Jekyll > > > website is built, and documentation artifacts from Clojure, CPP, Java, > > > Julia, Python, R, and Scala are combined into one website. > > > > > > https://mxnet-beta.staged.apache.org > > > > > > It is the culmination of a lot of effort of several MXNet contributors. > > > > > > * A huge shout out goes to Thomas Delteil for the work on the new > > > Jekyll-backend and beautiful-looking website, and for helping me out > > > whenever I'd get stuck on revamping the 7 different API docs systems > > > in CI. > > > * Soji Adeshina and Vishaal Kapoor both helping me with the system > > > design for the new docs pipelines. > > > * Per Goncalves da Silva and Marco de Abreu both helped me with > > > figuring out CI issues. > > > * We also ported over Mu Li's beta site for the Python & R APIs which > > > had many contributors there. Thanks goes to Mu, Ivy Bazan, Jonas > > > Mueller, Aston Zhang, and Zhi Zhang for their help & contributions. I > > > apologize in advance if I missed anyone. > > > > > > Highlights: > > > > > > * R docs are now generated as part of CI. There were issues with R > > > docs coming from beta repo. They were not reproducible. So I began the > > > process of creating the pdf doc that is expected by R users as an > > > alternative. Thomas fixed a CPP bug that was blocking 90% of the docs > > > from appearing. The R docs are 10x in length compared to the pdf we're > > > hosting now! > > > > > > * Each other API is built in a micro-site fashion. You will notice > > > that the reference API links will open up the site that is generated > > > by that language's docs tools. We tried to keep the navigation common > > > and do this for the Python API. This is something that can be expanded > > > on for the other APIs in later updates to the website. > > > > > > * Each doc set can be generated separately with functions that will > > > run in Docker and generate the docs artifacts. This means you can now > > > focus on your preferred API and not have to deal with anything else. > > > > > > * Website changes are now much easier. You can serve Jekyll locally, > > > and have it do incremental updates, so you can see your changes live > > > without having to build MXNet or anything else. It's a pure front-end > > > setup. > > > > > > * For website publishing, the MXNet binary is built once and then > > > shared with the other docs generation pipelines. > > > > > > * For individual docs runs, you can run a "lite" binary build, then > > > follow it up with the docs run you want. > > > > > > --- > > > > > > For example to build MXNet: > > > > > > ci/build.py --docker-registry mxnetcidev --platform ubuntu_cpu_lite > > > /work/runtime_functions.sh build_ubuntu_cpu_docs > > > > > > Then to build the R docs: > > > > > > ci/build.py --docker-registry mxnetcidev --platform ubuntu_cpu_r > > > /work/runtime_functions.sh build_r_docs > > > > > > There is now a Docker image and a runtime_function for each API > > > (except Perl which is built offsite). Python is like this: > > > > > > ci/build.py --docker-registry mxnetcidev --platform ubuntu_cpu_python > > > /work/runtime_functions.sh build_python_docs > > > > > > The pattern for platform is ubuntu_cpu_{api} and runtime_functions.sh > > > is build_{api}_docs. > > > > > > Further information is on the developer wiki: > > > > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MXNET/Building+the+New+Website > > > ---- > > > > > > Ok, now this is where YOU come in. We need reviewers and testers. > > > > > > There are a lot of changes. My original PR was over 1,000 files with > > > 83k additions and 55k deletions. So, Thomas broke this up into three > > > pull requests that stack. > > > > > > Step 1 New Content > https://github.com/apache/incubator-mxnet/pull/15884 > > > Step 2 Remove Old Content > > > https://github.com/apache/incubator-mxnet/pull/15885 > > > Step 3 Setup New Jenkins > > > https://github.com/apache/incubator-mxnet/pull/15886 > > > > > > For reviewing purposes, start with the new content - what's easily > > > visible on the preview website. This is mostly happening in the first > > > PR: > > > https://github.com/apache/incubator-mxnet/pull/15884 > > > You can also look at these helper PRs that show you the differences so > > > it is easier to review what's happening in Steps 2 and 3. You can > > > review these now as well. > > > Step 1->2: https://github.com/ThomasDelteil/incubator-mxnet/pull/5 > > > Step 2->3: https://github.com/ThomasDelteil/incubator-mxnet/pull/6 > > > > > > I really appreciate everyone's support on this effort. > > > > > > Cheers, > > > Aaron > > > >
