[TiDBer Chat Session 38] All Your Love and Hate for Documentation Can Be Vent Here~

Note:
This topic has been translated from a Chinese forum by GPT and might contain errors.

Original topic: 【 TiDBer 唠嗑茶话会 38 】关于文档的爱恨情仇,统统可以在这里倾诉~

| username: Billmay表妹

Preface

In the TiDB Community, TiDBers continuously offer suggestions for document optimization. Since the launch of the Document Optimization section, we have collected 70 pieces of feedback regarding document errors and needs. Out of these, 68 suggestions have been accepted and fully implemented, with the remaining 2 still being optimized…

As the product iterates, the importance of documentation becomes increasingly evident. Complete, detailed, and easy-to-understand documentation is often a powerful tool for TiDBers to handle TiDB issues.

We are well aware of the shortcomings of the existing documentation and the vast amount of content that needs optimization and iteration. The priority and level of detail for new documentation need to be planned reasonably according to TiDBers’ needs. Therefore, through this survey, we hope TiDBers can provide case by case documentation suggestions and work with the documentation team to refine the documents, helping more TiDBers tackle and solve technical problems encountered in daily work.

This Topic:

Leave case by case factual examples of documentation optimization needs in the comments section.

If you encounter the following issues:

  • Documentation errors
  • Some parts of the documentation are unclear
  • Missing explanations for certain parts of the documentation

Submit your feedback according to the following process:

Documentation Errors

If you encounter documentation errors, please provide feedback using the template below. This will help us locate the issue more quickly and make modifications promptly:

  • Issue Category: Outdated information, description errors, code errors, parameter errors, link errors, typos
  • Affected Page: Link + Screenshot
  • Error Description:

Unclear or Incomplete Documentation

If you find some parts of the documentation unclear, please submit feedback using the template below to help us understand your confusion better:

  • Issue Category: Content too brief, unclear or ambiguous descriptions, incomplete steps
  • Affected Page: Link + Screenshot
  • Problem Description:

New Documentation Needs

If this is a new documentation need, please submit feedback using the template below to help us understand your needs more quickly and optimize accordingly:

  • Request Type: New documentation
  • Background: For example, which part of the documentation is missing and how it affects usage
  • Expected additions to components or functions in the existing documentation and where to add them

Feedback Rewards:

  • One participant who provides feedback will be randomly selected to receive a new TiDB backpack, and another will receive a limited edition TiDB Cloud mug.
  • Participants who provide feedback according to the template will receive 100 points and 100 experience points.
  • All feasible suggestions will be implemented.

TiDB New Backpack

TiDB Cloud Limited Edition Mug

Participants who do not follow the template will not be eligible for rewards in this chat session.

| username: Kongdom | Original post link

The TiDB documentation is already very good, but it can be even better. PM, you know what I mean, right? :wink:

Here’s a suggestion:

| username: ShawnYan | Original post link

The documentation issue mentioned earlier has not been merged yet. :sweat_smile:

| username: wuxiangdong | Original post link

Regarding the documentation, there is a TiDB component called Tidb. I think this component name is not good because the database name is also called tidb, which can easily cause confusion.
Here are a few names to consider:
Ticp - cp is the abbreviation for computation in English
Tijs - js is the abbreviation for computation in Chinese
Tisql - People can tell from the name that this component handles SQL.
Tiql - Similar to tisql (4 letters mainly to keep consistent with tikv)

Everyone can help think of other more suitable names.

| username: ShawnYan | Original post link

Are you referring to the component called TiDB Server?

| username: wuxiangdong | Original post link

Yes, TiDB Server, this name is not good either, Ti Database server (Titanium Database Server).

| username: wuxiangdong | Original post link

Such an excellent domestic database, stepping out of the country and going global, the name should be simple and clear, without any difficult-to-understand aspects.

| username: Kongdom | Original post link

:rofl: Does this student have a misunderstanding about TiDB Server~ This is a service component, not a server.

| username: wuxiangdong | Original post link

Taking the meaning of the words literally.

| username: Kongdom | Original post link

Hehe, it can be categorized under the “Unclear or Ambiguous Description” issue. :wink:

| username: ddhe9527 | Original post link

The slow query log lacks explanations for many fields in the field description, such as Commit_backoff_time, Backoff_types, Wait_prewrite_binlog_time, Resolve_lock_time, Rocksdb_delete_skipped_count, Rocksdb_key_skipped_count, Rocksdb_block_cache_hit_count, etc.

| username: xfworld | Original post link

Could you please highlight that TiDB 5.x no longer supports BINLOG, either in uppercase or in a noticeable way?

Here’s a case where someone wants to upgrade to 6.1.1. They didn’t install TiCDC in 5.x but did install the BINLOG component and are asking why they can’t upgrade… :joy:

| username: 张雨齐0720 | Original post link

The documentation mentions that the parameter descriptions are not detailed enough and are presented very simply. There are no detailed explanations of specific parameters. The range of values, default values, whether a restart is required for the changes to take effect, etc., can be more comprehensive.

| username: 我是咖啡哥 | Original post link

A few days ago, I encountered it again when installing V6.1.1 offline. I followed the installation steps of V5.4.
The reason is that after V6.0, the contents of the two offline packages have changed significantly, and many component installation packages have been moved to the toolkit. This causes an issue where if only the server package is extracted during installation, it will result in components not being found. However, the log prompt is not obvious.

Suggestion:
Add a step at the position shown in the screenshot above: Extract the toolkit package and merge the image into the server directory.
This step is necessary. The current description ‘If you need to merge the server and toolkit offline images, execute the following command to merge the offline components into the server directory.’ may mislead people into thinking it is optional or unclear when merging is needed. :grinning:

I’ve described it for a long time, not sure if I’ve made myself clear. :grinning:

| username: neolithic | Original post link

It doesn’t seem very suitable for beginners, I feel more accustomed to Oracle documentation.

| username: whymalin | Original post link

The TiDB documentation is already very good. Some database documents are like reading a book of heaven, full of errors.

| username: forever | Original post link

The TiDB documentation is good. Let’s work together to find the issues and add more details to make it perfect. In comparison, the documentation of a certain cloud provider doesn’t even have the basic grammar perfected…