Mike Ormond's Blog

This document is intended as a style guide to try and bring some consistency to the project. Given the collaborative nature, number of authors, range of writing experience and style, I think it's important that we have some anchors points. The purpose is to give the project a more cohesive feel and make the final document easier and more enjoyable for the reader.

I am not in any way trying to impose *my* style but rather seek to find *a* style that we can all sign up to. This document will likely change frequently, at least initially, as we fill gaps and incorporate feedback.

Please do feedback where you believe changes need to be made.

Let's start with a few basics

• Audience
  • Aim for the middle ground. This is not an "introductory" book but neither is it a book that only the most experienced can comprehend
  • I suggest assuming some experience in
    • Writing software and general concepts of software development
    • Using Visual Studio
    • C#
    • XAML
    • If necessary we can list some useful background resources as part of the introduction
  • As a simple example, I would rather we say "Add a reference to xxx assembly" and assume the user knows how to do that rather than spell it all out in the form "Right-click on the project in Solution Explorer and select "Add Reference". In the Add References dialogue...."
• Tone
  • Aim for a relatively informal tone
  • The book is meant to offer practical guidance and inspiration to people wanting to build Windows Phone 7 applications
  • Make the tone approachable and friendly.
• Language
  • The book will be entirely in international English
  • All code samples should be in one language: C#
• Document Format
  • In order of preference
    • Word .docx
    • Word .doc
    • Anything else
  • Word styles should be used to provide some semantics
    • Title (for section Title)
    • Heading 1 (for Section Heading)
    • Heading 2 (for Sub Headings)
    • etc

As for more detailed requirements, I suggest we follow the style guide from O'Reilly unless anyone has any better suggestions.

O'Reilly publishing stylesheet

This covers such things as abbreviations, cross-referencing, dates & numbers, figures & tables, lists etc

Version 1.1 (4th March 2011) - Typo corrected
Version 1.0 (3rd March 2011)