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feat: use new theme for the website
Signed-off-by: Avinal Kumar <avinal.xlvii@gmail.com> rh-pre-commit.version: 2.3.2 rh-pre-commit.check-secrets: ENABLED
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---
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category: development
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date: 2020-12-01T23:47:00
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description: The project was to Create the VLC User Documentation for Android Mobile
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Port which was previously hosted on VLC wiki pages. The major portion of this was
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to start everything from scratch including chapter separation, section organization.
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image: /images/day-of-cone.webp
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modified: 2020-12-31T23:19:00
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tags:
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- vlc
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- gsod
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- gsod2020
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title: Create the VLC User Documentation for one Mobile Port(Android)
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---
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VideoLAN is a non-profit organization that develops software for playing
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video and other media formats. VLC media player (commonly known as just
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VLC) is a free and Open Source cross-platform multimedia player and
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framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs,
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VCDs, and various streaming protocols built by the VideoLAN organization
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and a team of volunteers. VLC for Android is a port of the VLC for
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Android OS.
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The project was to Create the VLC User Documentation for Android Mobile
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Port which was previously hosted on VLC's wiki pages. The major portion
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of this was to start everything from scratch including chapter
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separation, section organization and an engaging and easy to follow for
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both technical and non-technical users. The original proposal can be
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found here.
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## PROJECT GOALS
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- Propose a new structure for documentation e.g. Chapter Separation,
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Sections etc
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- Proper balance between technical and non-technical descriptions to
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serve all kinds of users.
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- Adequate amount of screenshots in each section and other supporting
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media to make documentation more appealing.
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- Optimized for all Screen Sizes. Especially for Mobile Devices.
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- Ease of navigation
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## COMMUNITY BONDING
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This period was mostly utilized for collecting more information and many
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internal meetings to shape the projects and bonding with fellow writers,
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developers(mentors). I got to know more about the VLC organization and
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the project. We decided to create a skeleton of the project and then
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follow a Issue-Merge Request-Review-Merge system to keep the commit
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history clean and maintain the proper review of the work before it is
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merged.
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I initially proposed that the new documentation should also use the same
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tools(Sphinx and GitLab Pages) because if in future we want to merge all
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the documentation into a single one, it will be easier to migrate and
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will provide a consistency across all documentations. Later I got to
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know that this will be an independent project and may not be merged
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since it solves a lot of problems. I was already familiar with the tools
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so it took no time to get started.
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Nicolas Pomepuy, who is the lead developer of VLC for Android was
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assigned as my primary mentor and Simon Latapie as secondary mentor.
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## DOCUMENTATION DEVELOPMENT PHASE
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Initial Preparation I first moved my existing demo documentation to an
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entirely new repository with only the skeleton at the suggestion of my
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mentor. It was necessary to keep the commit history clean. The skeleton
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contained the empty directories representing the chapter separation. I
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got to learn “how to properly develop a project and contribute to open
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source”. This was a major lesson that got me familiar with the Merge
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Request and Review system.
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The Development The next part was to frame the actual documentation
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pages and push to the repository. Since there was a significant
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time-zone difference we agreed to discuss by creating issues and
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sometimes my emails. There was one meeting every fortnight to check the
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process and discuss further development and blockers. Nicolas was really
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helpful and patient, answering each of my big-small queries.
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Work Done
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<style>
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table,td,th {
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border-collapse:collapse;
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border: 1px solid #000000;
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}
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</style>
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<table>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>Documentation</strong></td>
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<td><a href="https://avinal.videolan.me/vlc-android-user/">VLC for Android User Documentation </a>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>Project Repository</strong>
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</td>
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<td><a href="https://code.videolan.org/avinal/vlc-android-user">Projects · Avinal Kumar / VLC for Android User Documentation</a>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>Commits</strong>
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</td>
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<td><a href="https://code.videolan.org/avinal/vlc-android-user/-/commits/master">Commits · Avinal Kumar / VLC for Android User Documentation</a>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>Issues/Discussions</strong>
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</td>
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<td><a href="https://code.videolan.org/avinal/vlc-android-user/-/issues">Issues · Avinal Kumar / VLC for Android User Documentation</a>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>Merge Requests</strong>
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</td>
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<td><a href="https://code.videolan.org/avinal/vlc-android-user/-/merge_requests">Merge Requests · Avinal Kumar / VLC for Android User Documentation</a>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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Since the Android port of VLC can be installed on Android
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Smartphones/Tablets, Android TVs, Amazon Fire Devices and Chromebooks
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too, a full documentation will cover these all devices. Although these
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are different form factors, the features provided on each of them is
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exactly the same and the same documentation can be used for all these
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devices. As of now only Smartphones/Tablets are covered. And later
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additional pages will be added to reference different features/User
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Interface. Regardless of this addition the current documentation can
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serve a major part for all these form factors. Completed/Remaining
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<table>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>Chapters</strong>
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</td>
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<td><strong>Sections</strong>
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</td>
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<td><strong>Status</strong>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>Settings</strong>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>General Settings
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<li>Interface
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<li>Video
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<li>Subtitles
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<li>Audio
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<li>Casting
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<li>Advanced
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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<td><strong>ALL COMPLETED</strong>
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<p>
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<strong>FOR ALL FORM FACTORS</strong>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>Video</strong>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>Video Explorer
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<li>Video Player
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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<td><strong>COMPLETED FOR SMARTPHONES/TABLETS</strong>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>Audio</strong>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>Audio Explorer
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<li>Audio Player
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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<td><strong>COMPLETED FOR SMARTPHONES/TABLETS</strong>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>Browse</strong>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>Explorer
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<li>Local Network
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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<td><strong>ONLY SMB IN LOCAL NETWORK COMPLETED</strong>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>Installation</strong>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>Smartphones/Tablets
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<li>Android TV
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<li>Fire Devices
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<li>Chromebooks
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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<td><strong>COMPLETED FOR SMARTPHONES/TABLETS</strong>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>User Interface</strong>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>Smartphones/Tablets
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<li>Android TV
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<li>Fire Devices
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<li>Chromebooks
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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<td><strong>COMPLETED FOR SMARTPHONES/TABLETS</strong>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>Support</strong>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>FAQs
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<li>Help
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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<td><strong>IN PROGRESS</strong>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td><strong>Guidelines</strong>
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</td>
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<td>
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<ul>
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<li>Contribution Guideline
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<li>Screenshot Guidelines
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<li>READMEs
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</li>
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</ul>
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</td>
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<td><strong>IN PROGRESS</strong>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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## CHALLENGES
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The major obstacle was to get screenshots for all form factors. Since
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screenshots were the major part of this documentation it was necessary
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to provide proper screenshots in each chapter and with every step. For
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Android TV and Smartphone this was solved by using emulators instead of
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actual devices, but to emulate the actual scenario in an emulator was
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sometimes very difficult. There were many occasions where I was not able
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to gather the exact information about devices other than
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smartphones/tables. Since all form factors share a common pool of
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features, my mentor suggested that I focus on smartphones/tables. And to
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create issues mentioning missing parts so that it could be solved later.
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## THANKS
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I want to thank my mentors for being supporting and helpful. I want to
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thank every person at VLC and Google who were involved in this whole
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process. Thanks and Congrats to my fellow writer Abhishek Pratap Singh.
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This was a great opportunity to learn and meet awesome people. I learned
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a lot about Sphinx, reStructured Text and many other things.
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## ATTRIBUTION
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- [Image by Tom Bigelajzen](https://images.videolan.org/images/goodies/day-of-the-cones-ex2.jpg)
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