NAME

What Should I Read?

Here are the highlights:

    Very lazy people should start with Bigtop::Docs::QuickStart
    Merely lazy people should start with Bigtop::Docs::TentTut
    Those allergic to web apps should start with Bigtop::Docs::Tutorial
    Pedants should look in Bigtop::Docs::Syntax instead
    Bigtop developers should carefully read Bigtop::Docs::Modules

"Bigtop::Docs::About"

Describes the features and motivations of Bigtop.

"Bigtop::Docs::AutoBackends"

Documentation on each available backend and how to configure it. This one is auto-generated, and is therefore more likely to be up to date.

"Bigtop::Docs::Cookbook"

Modeled after the Perl Cookbook, this provides a list of things you might want to do, the syntax needed to make Bigtop do them for you, and the output produced by them. It focuses on hand written bigtop files, rather than on tentmaker.

"Bigtop::Docs::FullKeywords"

Documents all the valid keywords Bigtop understands by the block in which they appear. This one is auto-generated and shows exactly the same information as tentmaker.

"Bigtop::Docs::Modules"

Documents many of the modules in the bigtop distribution including at least: Bigtop.pm and Bigtop::Parser. This includes a description of the grammar of the Bigtop language and how to work with it. (Note that the grammar is now in its own file called bigtop.grammar, but this has no effect on the docs in Bigtop::Docs::Modules. It may be out of date, but the extraction of the grammar is not the reason.)

"Bigtop::Docs::QuickKeywords"

Abbreviated version of Bigtop::Docs::FullKeywords. Reduces most descriptions to one line.

"Bigtop::Docs::QuickStart"

Guide for the truly impatient. Explains how to build a complete auto-CRUD app from the command line alone using either kickstart syntax or connection information for a PostgreSQL 8 database.

"Bigtop::Docs::Syntax"

This is meant to fully describe all of the syntax (including deprecations) in the Bigtop language. It is the encyclopedic version of Bigtop::Docs::Keywords and is meant as complete documentation of Bigtop::Keywords.

Much of the information here is also in "Bigtop::Docs::AutoBackends" and "Bigtop::Docs::AutoKeywords". But, there is more discussion in this one. The others are more up-to-date on actual keyword availability, etc.

"Bigtop::Docs::TentRef"

A comprehensive tour of tentmaker which assumes you understand the material from "Bigtop::Docs::TentTut".

"Bigtop::Docs::TentTut"

The tentmaker tutorial. Explains in detail how to use tentmaker to edit Bigtop files. Filled with beautiful screen shots (sometimes, they are even up to date and available to your browser).

"Bigtop::Docs::Tutorial"

If you don't like tentmaker, this is where you should start. It walks through building a moderately complex application from scratch using a text editor to enter the proper Bigtop syntax.

"Bigtop::Docs::Vim"

Explains how to install vim syntax highlighting for Bigtop source files.

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