RIOT Summit 2024

Breakout Session: RIOT in teaching, lower entry level, documentation

Teaching and Training

  • RIOT Box used for teaching and tutorials
  • having a self-consistent dev environment out of the box (i.e., PI) is quite beneficial
  • alternative approach: cloud-based environment, virtualized hw
    • might not feel like IoT dev
    • students like to touch hardware
    • what you can do: codespace provided by GitHub; is a good starting point but for advanced topics (and understanding) you easily reach limits
  • distinguish between teaching and training (outside university)
  • Web serial API would be nice to flash boards using a Web browser
    • nice goal would be to have a browser-based dev environment but with option to flash real hardware
  • Forschungs-Campus Wien: https://wiki.elvis.science/index.php?title=Category:Documentation
  • Border router is too complicated to setup
  • lack of IPv6 connectivity, use WireGuard tunnel
  • any experiences with AWS?
  • lowing the entry level for beginners
  • how do we handle fragmentation of excercises.

Next steps

  • create teaching.riot-os.org, and maybe training.riot-os.org, www.riot-os.org/teaching
    • overview page that shows in which courses RIOT is used
    • also to share experiences which topics are appropriate for which level of students?
    • to prevent fragmentation due to too many excercise repos, we could regularly check the different repos and pick those excercises that are of general interest (and not specific to a dedicated course), and merge them

Documentation

  • Tom works on extending the documentation to make it more beginners friendly, lower entry level
  • why do we not have proper beginners guide?
    • we do not lack documentation but it is hard to find the right pieces.
    • proper linking of the documentation in the API documentation
  • we should reconsider the page behind the “Getting started” button
    • much simpler website insteas of the main page of the API documentation
    • what is the state about the improvements Koen started.
  • fear of inconsistent content between guide and documentation
    • maybe just hide content
  • redesign look and feel of API documentation
    • Leandro, Jose started somethin; Carl too
    • Discussions on converting XML to HTML5
  • should we add documentations check to releases
    • how much can we automate?
    • at least checking links can be automated
    • add docuḿentation/getting started checking to the release specs
  • more advanced steps: create beginner videos
  • make it part of the CI
    • examples include in guides
  • Examples are a mess, gnrc_networking good entry-level usage example
  • Always important to mark todos
  • Hannes: Let ChatGPT write documentation as experiment? Oleg: Did not actually do it yet.
  • Conclusion: Spirit of how to improve things is there and people are willing to do it

Breakout Session: How to contribute?

  • Person proposing the topic not in the room
  • Tom: Only real newcomer here, apparently: Confused about communication channels: When to use Matrix, when to use forum, when to use issue tracker?
  • Martine: Forum for questions where you think the answer can have value for other people, too. Matrix for quick questions where other people do not need the answer (where do I find XYZ?). Issue-Tracker for bugs you encounter (even for documentation bugs).
RIOT Summit 2024 Breakout Session: RIOT in teaching, lower entry level, documentation Teaching and Training RIOT Box used for teaching and tutorials having a self-consistent dev environment out of the box (i.e., PI) is quite beneficial alternative approach: cloud-based environment, virtualized hw might not feel like IoT dev students like to touch hardware what you can do: codespace provided by GitHub; is a good starting point but for advanced topics (and understanding) you easily reach limits distinguish between teaching and training (outside university) Web serial API would be nice to flash boards using a Web browser nice goal would be to have a browser-based dev environment but with option to flash real hardware Forschungs-Campus Wien: https://wiki.elvis.science/index.php?title=Category:Documentation Border router is too complicated to setup lack of IPv6 connectivity, use WireGuard tunnel any experiences with AWS? Hannes has, ARM virtual hardware AWS Academy program, functions are limited but good start lowing the entry level for beginners how do we handle fragmentation of excercises. Next steps create teaching.riot-os.org, and maybe training.riot-os.org, www.riot-os.org/teaching overview page that shows in which courses RIOT is used also to share experiences which topics are appropriate for which level of students? to prevent fragmentation due to too many excercise repos, we could regularly check the different repos and pick those excercises that are of general interest (and not specific to a dedicated course), and merge them Documentation Tom works on extending the documentation to make it more beginners friendly, lower entry level why do we not have proper beginners guide? we do not lack documentation but it is hard to find the right pieces. proper linking of the documentation in the API documentation we should reconsider the page behind the “Getting started” button much simpler website insteas of the main page of the API documentation what is the state about the improvements Koen started. fear of inconsistent content between guide and documentation maybe just hide content redesign look and feel of API documentation Leandro, Jose started somethin; Carl too Discussions on converting XML to HTML5 should we add documentations check to releases how much can we automate? at least checking links can be automated add docuḿentation/getting started checking to the release specs more advanced steps: create beginner videos make it part of the CI examples include in guides Examples are a mess, gnrc_networking good entry-level usage example Always important to mark todos Hannes: Let ChatGPT write documentation as experiment? Oleg: Did not actually do it yet. Conclusion: Spirit of how to improve things is there and people are willing to do it Breakout Session: How to contribute? Person proposing the topic not in the room Tom: Only real newcomer here, apparently: Confused about communication channels: When to use Matrix, when to use forum, when to use issue tracker? Martine: Forum for questions where you think the answer can have value for other people, too. Matrix for quick questions where other people do not need the answer (where do I find XYZ?). Issue-Tracker for bugs you encounter (even for documentation bugs).
{}