rdbms-playground/website/STYLE.md

Documentation style guide (living)

This is the living home for documentation authoring conventions for the RDBMS Playground website. It grows as we write.

• Binding rules come from ADR-0044 §7; this guide must not contradict them. If a convention is significant, durable, or contested, it is decided in an ADR (new or amended), and this guide references it. Finer, settled conventions live here directly.
• Open decisions (not yet settled) are tracked at the bottom so we decide them deliberately rather than re-deciding per page. When one settles, move it up into the body (and to an ADR if it's significant).

Status tags used below: [DECIDED] (binding or settled) · [OPEN] (to be decided — see the log).

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Terminology & wording [DECIDED — ADR-0044 §7]

• No "DSL". It is internal jargon. Use simple mode (the playground's keyword command language) and advanced mode (SQL).
• No engine name. Never name SQLite / STRICT / rusqlite / PRAGMA in user-facing copy. Say "the database" or "the engine". (Continues the user-facing posture of ADR-0002.)
• Preferred terms (extend as we go): "command", "project", "table", "column", "relationship" (the user-facing word for a declared foreign-key link), "constraint", "index".
• Add new banned/preferred terms here as they come up, with a one-line reason.

Voice & tone [DECIDED, refine as needed]

• Teaching-first. Pedagogy wins ties (CLAUDE.md). Explain the why, not just the how; the audience spans beginners through learners ready for raw SQL.
• Second person ("you"), present tense. Imperative mood for step instructions ("Create a table…").
• Prefer short sentences and concrete examples over abstract prose.

Structure [DECIDED]

Pragmatic, Diátaxis-influenced split (four top-level sidebar sections, autogenerated per directory under src/content/docs/):

• Getting started — install, first project, simple vs. advanced, the example database.
• Guides — task-oriented how-tos. These are the most important didactic content and will be iterated for teaching quality before publication.
• Reference — the exhaustive command/SQL/type surface. Page granularity: one page per topic / command-family (Tables, Columns, Relationships, Indexes, Constraints, Inserting & editing data, Querying, Types, …), each covering the simple-mode and advanced-mode forms where both apply. Hand-written now (the command surface is settled bar H1a output); small post-release adjustments are expected and fine.
• Concepts — the "why": projects & storage, undo & history, etc.

Ground every reference page in source — parse.usage.* and help.* in src/friendly/strings/en-US.yaml, src/dsl/command.rs, src/dsl/types.rs — never paraphrase grammar from memory.

"Planned / not yet available" callouts [DECIDED — ADR-0044 §7]

Any capability that is not yet fully implemented is omitted or carries a clear callout — never presented as shipped. Standard form: a Starlight aside

:::caution[Planned]
This is planned and not yet available.
:::

Examples & code [DECIDED]

• Shared example database: a small library — authors, books, members, loans (see the canonical schema below). Reuse it across all pages so readers build familiarity; it models 1:n (an author has many books) and m:n (books ↔ members, through loans).
• Where both modes apply, show the simple-mode form and its advanced-mode (SQL) equivalent — the in-app teaching echo already pairs these, so docs mirror it.
• Prefer worked examples (a real command on the library schema) over abstract prose, and always cross-link the related reference/guide pages (use stubs so links resolve before a page is written).
• Code blocks for exact input/output; reserve casts for motion/flow.

Code-block fences

• Simple-mode commands → ```rdbms — custom highlight grammar in src/grammars/rdbms.mjs, registered with Expressive Code in astro.config.mjs (keywords + types coloured).
• Advanced-mode SQL → ```sql; shell / install → ```sh.
• A decorative > prompt is prepended to rdbms lines via CSS (src/styles/global.css) — do not type > in the fence. It is copy-safe (Expressive Code's copy button uses data-code) and user-select:none.
• One command per line in an rdbms block; a multi-line single statement (e.g. advanced CREATE TABLE) belongs in a ```sql block, where no prompt is added.

Canonical library schema (source of truth for examples)

Use these exact names/types in every example:

Table	Columns (playground types)
authors	author_id serial (pk) · name text (not null) · birth_year int
books	book_id serial (pk) · title text (not null) · author_id int (→ authors) · published int · isbn text (unique)
members	member_id serial (pk) · name text (not null) · joined date
loans	loan_id serial (pk) · book_id int (→ books) · member_id int (→ members) · loaned_on date · returned_on date

Relationships: books.author_id → authors.author_id (1:n); loans joins books and members (the m:n bridge). Show shortid on the Types page via a small standalone example, not by complicating this schema.

asciinema casts [DECIDED, details OPEN]

• Casts show flow/motion; static code blocks show exact input/output. Prefer a code block when a still example suffices.
• Pair a hero/landing cast with a text transcript or the equivalent docs snippet (accessibility + SEO).
• Recorded via a scripted-input driver for paced, re-recordable sessions (ADR-0044 §2; recipe in README.md). [OPEN]: cast file naming, fixed terminal size, light/dark theme handling.

Formatting [DECIDED, refine]

• Starlight asides for notes/tips/cautions; tables for reference matrices (types, constraints, referential actions).
• Keyboard keys rendered consistently (e.g. Ctrl+Z).
• Cross-link related pages; never expose ADR numbers or internal jargon to the reader (ADRs are for us, not the docs audience).

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Open decisions log

Decide these as we write; record the outcome (and escalate to an ADR if significant).

Resolved (2026-06-05):

1. Depth / organising spine → Pragmatic four-section split (see Structure above).
2. Page granularity → one page per topic / command-family, both modes per page (see Structure).
3. Standard example dataset → the library (schema above).
4. Simple-vs-advanced pairing → show both where both apply (see Examples).
5. "Planned" callout → standard :::caution[Planned] aside (see above).
6. Reference generation vs hand-writing → hand-write now (command surface is settled bar H1a output; small later adjustments expected).

Still open: 7. Versioning. Version selectors at/after v1, or single-version for launch? (Leaning single-version for launch.) 8. SEO/meta conventions. Title/description patterns, Open Graph — settle with Phase B (landing) and the site URL. 9. Cast scripting toolchain. Confirm the scripted-input driver (asciinema-automation/autocast vs alternative) via a test run; define the .cast script format + storage location. (Execution task, in flight.)