The help mode is activated by clicking the ? icon. Once active, clicking on any button or area within the MOD UI will bring up a small pop-up window with a quick tip about that specific feature.
If a help file is missing: A fallback window displaying the element’s argument ID will be shown instead so that can be possible to write it.
If an argument ID is missing: A different message will appear, prompting developers or contributors to add it.
Key Goals
Keep it simple: Simple to use, simple to implement.
Low maintenance: It shouldn’t create a heavy overhead for the core team.
Accessible contributing: The help content consists of simple files injected into the MOD UI, so anyone with minimal HTML skills can contribute. By separating this content into a Git submodule, dedicated technical writers can easily maintain and update the documentation without touching the main codebase.
I find this great! This is something that I argued on the platform before and now seeing it makes me really happy!
I could definitely help you with the text! Afterall I take care of the wiki. I believe some “More info” and linking to relevant wiki page/section is a must-have and that’s super easy for me to provide.
If my HTML skills are enough, I don’t know. But if something that I believe I am is a learner, then I doubt it will take me much to learn whatever may be needed to get it done.
As I wrote in my original post, I really feel that this should be part of the official MOD OS. I would even be happy if it were active by default on the first device usage or even until the user deactivates it. I feel that this would 1) help new users greatly climb the stiff learning curve that a MOD device can have; 2) save quite some time on my/MOD team side for support on fairly “simple” stuff.
“More info” links can be added as standard links, so no problem supporting that.
We could also explore using a JS Markdown library — that way you could write the docs in a syntax similar to what we already use here on the forum.
This isn’t entirely straightforward: when help mode is “active”, most buttons would need to be disabled to avoid conflicts. I need to think this through a bit more before committing to a solution.
Yes, my point was to try to keep the text as simple/short as possible, with a reference to a page with more info.
That sounds great. But if it’s too hard for you, no problem doing it another way. I would find a middle ground of “easiness” for both sides.
Also, here it’s important to note: although I may start it, it would be great to do it in a way that any community member could work on it. Eventually, a system where users could request/submit edits would be great. But maybe that should be a second stage.
To be honest with you, I’m not sure if that is something that you need to worry about. I would arguably say that such a feature/user experience thingy should be planned on our (MOD team) side. Simply, this “help view” that you are providing helps us on that, but at the same time can be used for other stuff by anyone “playing around” with these types of things on the MOD Dwarf. The first user experience was something that the team planned and talked (and there was at least one “re-talk” that I can think of) a while back. Even the way that you open the box of the device, how it looks inside, where the cables are and how they are folded was planned. As well as what it happens when you first turn on the device (the “A warm welcome” pedalboard, I guess, says it all). I would say that something like this should be put in that bucket.
No problem at all, at least on the technical side: there are plenty of Markdown rendering libraries available for JavaScript.
I agree. At the beginning, we can simply accept issues and PRs on GitHub — that’s already a good starting point.
I updated my code using the marked.js library and it seems to work very well:
### Pedalboard Zoom Controls
- **Zoom Out (Magnifying glass with minus):** Shrinks the view to see more pedals on the canvas at once.
- **Zoom In (Magnifying glass with plus):** Enlarges the view to focus on details and individual pedal controls.
