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1// Copyright (c) 2014-2018 Khronos Group. This work is licensed under a
2// Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License; see
3// http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
4
5= Vulkan^(R)^ Documentation and Extensions: Procedures and Conventions
6Jon Leech, Tobias Hector
7:data-uri:
8:icons: font
9:toc2:
10:toclevels: 3
11:max-width: 100
12:numbered:
13:doctype: book
14:imagewidth: 800
15:fullimagewidth: width="800"
16:cl: :
17
18// Various special / math symbols. This is easier to edit with than Unicode.
19include::config/attribs.txt[]
20
21:leveloffset: 1
22
23<<<<
24
25include::copyright-ccby.txt[]
26
27<<<<
28
29[[introduction]]
30= Introduction
31
32This document contains required procedures and conventions when writing
33specifications for new Vulkan APIs, extensions and layers, or related
34Khronos documentation such as white papers and tutorials; or contributing to
35existing Vulkan specifications.
36These are collectively referred to as _Vulkan Documentation_ or just
37_documentation_ below.
38The primary focus is the API Specification and API extensions, although all
39of the markup and most of the writing style is equally applicable to other
40documentation.
41
42The primary purpose is to achieve consistency across the API, as well as
43across all of our source and output documents.
44Consistency makes it easier for developers, editors, reviewers, and users of
45our documentation to understand and modify it.
46
47This document is now formally voted on and approved by the Vulkan Working
48Group.
49This means that unless explicitly stated otherwise, the procedures and
50conventions must be followed.
51If you have a strong desire to modify the procedures and conventions, such
52changes must be made through the normal Vulkan Working Group processes.
53
54
55[[introduction-terminology]]
56== Terminology
57
58The key words *must*, *required*, *should*, *recommend*, *may*, and
59*optional* in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119
60and by the Vulkan 1.1 Specification in the "`Terminology`" section.
61
62
63[[introduction-structure]]
64== Document Structure
65
66The style guide is broken into four sections:
67
68  * <<naming,API Naming Conventions>> - the required rules for choosing
69    names of Vulkan identifiers of all types.
70  * <<extensions,Extensions and Layers>> - the required procedures for
71    creating formal Vulkan extensions and layers.
72  * <<markup,Markup Style>> - the required and recommended markup style for
73    writing asciidoc and XML source that follows consistent formatting and
74    layout guidelines, tags special terms and phrases for proper processing
75    by the spec generation tools, etc.
76  * <<writing,Writing Style>> - the required and recommended writing style
77    for overall and fine-grained structure and conventions, normative
78    language use, API naming conventions, common words and phrases to use
79    and to avoid, linking and cross-referencing, etc.
80
81
82[[introduction-asciidoc]]
83== Asciidoc Markup
84
85Vulkan Documentation is primarily written in Asciidoc, a form of text markup
86language.
87Specifically we're using the version of Asciidoc that is actively maintained
88by asciidoctor, which is documented on its website at
89http://www.asciidoctor.org/.
90
91References to the Asciidoctor User Manual are to sections in the document at
92http://asciidoctor.org/docs/user-manual/.
93
94Asciidoctor is implemented in Ruby (https://www.ruby-lang.org/), which is
95available for Linux, MacOS, and Microsoft Windows.
96Multiple preview tools also exist for the language, primarily using
97AsciidoctorJ (https://github.com/asciidoctor/asciidoctorj) or asciidoctor.js
98(https://github.com/asciidoctor/asciidoctor.js).
99In particular, GitHub and GitLab both have asciidoc previews for .adoc or
100.asciidoc files in repositories, and live preview extensions exist for
101Chrome and Firefox.
102
103The Asciidoctor toolchain and build process are not addressed by this
104document, which concentrates solely on source documents.
105
106
107[[introduction-normative]]
108== Normative References
109
110Normative references are references to external documents or resources to
111which documentation authors must comply.
112
113[[iso-8601]]
114International Organization for Standardization, _Data elements and
115interchange formats -- Information interchange -- Representation of dates
116and times_, http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=40874,
1172004-12-01.
118Also see https://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/iso-date for colloquial examples.
119
120[[vulkan-docs]]
121Khronos Vulkan Working Group, +KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Docs+ project on GitHub,
122https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Docs, 2016-07-05.
123
124[[vulkan-spec]]
125Vulkan Working Group, _Vulkan 1.1.70 - A Specification_,
126https://www.khronos.org/registry/vulkan/, 2018-03-07
127
128Version 1.1.70 is the latest patch release of the Vulkan API Specification
129as of the time this reference was created, but that Specification is
130frequently updated with minor bugfixes and clarifications.
131When a more recent patch release is made, it becomes the normative reference
132for the API.
133
134
135// Chapters of the text are included below
136
137include::style/naming.txt[]
138
139include::style/extensions.txt[]
140
141include::style/markup.txt[]
142
143include::style/writing.txt[]
144
145include::style/misc.txt[]
146
147// Appendices are included below
148include::style/vuid.txt[]
149
150
151= Revision History
152
153* 2018-08-13 - Add %inline directive to the <<markup-sample-section-images,
154  Figures>> section (public pull request 734).
155* 2018-07-08 - Remove requirement to explicitly include extension appendices
156  in the <<extensions-documenting-extensions, Changes for New Extensions>>
157  section.
158* 2018-06-25 - Modify the process for <<extensions-vendor-id, Registering a
159  Vendor ID with Khronos>> to define vendor ID values as part of an
160  enumerated type.
161* 2018-03-07 - Updated for Vulkan 1.1 release.
162* 2018-01-10 - Move details of mandated extension compatibility from the
163  <<extensions-rules, General Rules/Guidelines>> section into the
164  Fundamentals section of the API Specification, where they are changed
165  slightly to allow explicit incompatibilies (public issue 638).
166* 2017-10-27 - Add language about proper use of "`valid pointer`" and
167  "`pointer to valid object`" for valid usage statements, in the
168  <<sample-command, Sample Command Description>> section (related to public
169  pull request 547).
170* 2017-10-15 - Describe how to write <<writing-latexmath-in-table-cells,
171  LaTeX Math in Table Cells>> (internal issue 908).
172* 2017-10-15 - Add more details of <<extensions-naming-author-IDs, `KHX`
173  extensions>> (public issues 536, 580).
174* 2017-09-10 - Add descriptions of <<writing-arrays, how to use `each` and
175  `any`>> to refer to properties of elments of arrays (internal issue 884).
176* 2017-09-10 - Add <<extensions-interactions-parent, Valid Usage and
177  Extension pname:pNext Chains>> language specifying where to describe
178  interactions of structures in a pname:pNext chain (internal issue 715).
179* 2017-09-10 - Add example of marking up an enumerated type all of whose
180  values are defined by extensions (internal issue 864).
181* 2017-08-25 - Add language to the <<extensions,API Versions, Extensions,
182  and Layers>> chapter describing how to write new API versions (internal
183  issue 892).
184* 2017-06-12 - Add sections describing when to use the
185  <<markup-macros-api-name, *name{cl}>> and <<markup-macros-api-text,
186  *text{cl}>> markup macros instead of the *link{cl} macros, and clarify
187  that slink{cl} should be used for handle as well as structure names
188  (internal issue 886).
189* 2017-05-08 - Add appendix describing <<appendix-vuid, Valid Usage ID
190  Tags>> and how they're generated.
191* 2017-03-19 - Add naming rule for <<naming-extension-structures, Extension
192  Structure Names>>.
193* 2017-02-11 - Finish transitioning to asciidoctor markup.
194* 2016-09-28 - Add asciidoc math markup guidelines.
195* 2016-09-16 - Make style guide markup more consistent with its own
196  recommendations.
197  Simplify some tables of preferred terms.
198  Add sections on block and table markup.
199* 2016-09-12 - Describe writing and markup style for labelled lists.
200  Require use of the ISO 8601 date format except in rare legacy cases.
201  Expand the description of <<markup-layout,Line Lengths>> and add a
202  description of markup for <<markup-footnotes,Footnotes>>.
203* 2016-09-08 - Add a writing section about proper use of
204  <<writing-misc-a-an,"`a`" and "`an`">> (internal issue 432).
205* 2016-08-30 - Remove mustnot{cl} and shouldnot{cl} macro definitions, which
206  are no longer used in the Specification (internal issue 407).
207* 2016-08-29 - Add spelling and compound word rules (public issue 352).
208* 2016-08-23 - Modify description of specifying extensions in the
209  <<extensions,Layers and Extensions>> chapter to refer to the new
210  single-branch model for extensions (internal issue 397).
211* 2016-07-26 - Add section describing <<writing-refpages,markup for
212  automatic reference page extraction>>.
213* 2016-07-18 - Add examples of function-parameter and structure-member
214  markup (based on public issue 286).
215* 2016-07-11 - Change the document title.
216* 2016-07-07 - Rename document, change license to CC BY, clarify required
217  and recommended actions, and reserve use of "`normative`" for the
218  Specifications.
219* 2016-06-26 - Move Layers and Extensions chapter from Appendix C of the
220  Vulkan API Specification and merge content with the naming guide.
221  Put extension and naming chapters into their own source files.
222* 2016-06-20 - Add API naming guide.
223* 2016-05-22 - Add markup and image creation rules, after fixing missing
224  figure captions for public issue 219.
225* 2016-05-01 - Include feedback from public issues 120 and 190.
226  Use consistent conventions for defining structures.
227  Use American rather than British spelling conventions.
228* 2016-03-12 - Recommend against "the value of".
229* 2016-02-26 - Replace use of the "maynot{cl}" macro with "may{cl} not".
230* 2016-02-16 - Place asciidoc conversion post-release.
231* 2016-02-09 - Added quotation mark convention.
232* 2016-02-01 - Add the Oxford Comma section and issue resolution.
233* 2016-01-26 - Add bullet-list style description of command parameters.
234* 2016-01-11 - Add "`Numbers in Text`" section from WSI work.
235* 2015-12-16 - Make "`begin / end`" preferred terms to "`start / finish`".
236* 2015-12-15 - Make "`implementation`" preferred term instead of "`system`".
237* 2015-12-13 - Add tlink{cl}/tname{cl} macros for function pointer types.
238* 2015-12-10 - Initial release for feedback.
239