# NeXtMidas Guide to Engineering Documents

### Introduction

The NeXtMidas baseline (SYS option tree) is distributed along with a complete set of engineering documents. These documents document both the core operating concepts and specific functions of NeXtMidas.

To maximize the portability of the NeXtMidas documentation, all documents are in either plain-text (`.txt`, `.exp`, etc.) or HTML format (`.html` or `.htm`) that can be viewed with any standard web browser.

### How to get the Documents

There are five primary ways of looking at the NeXtMidas documents:

Extracted NeXtMidas Version
  The NeXtMidas Release Notes, NeXtMidas Installation Guide and NeXtMidas User's Guide can be found in your extracted NextMidas version under nxm/sys/docs
Master Help Index
  As its name implies this is the "master" index to all of the available documentation. It can be accessed via a web browser (following the installation of NeXtMidas) at `$NMROOT/htdocs/help/index.html`.
HELP/GUI
  This is the Java-based counterpart of the Master Help Index that can be launched directly from the NeXtMidas command line using `HELP/GUI`.
EXPLAIN
  This NeXtMidas command will list the documentation for a given NeXtMidas command. The typical usage of this command is:

      nM> EXPLAIN <COMMAND>

  For more details on the `EXPLAIN` command:

      nM> EXPLAIN EXPLAIN

QUERY
  This will list the commands that can be invoked (via the `INVOKE` command) as well as a brief synopsis of the command (using the API, if available). For more details on the `QUERY` command:

      nM> EXPLAIN QUERY

### Available Documents

Below is a list of the most-frequently-used documents. Other documents, not listed here, are available via the Master Help Index or HELP/GUI.

Name | What it Documents | Available via
Website | Master Help Index | HELP /GUI | EXPLAIN | QUERY
NeXtMidas Release Notes | Supported platforms, changes from previous releases (fixes, enhancements), and known issues and bugs. | X | X | X |  |
NeXtMidas Installation Guide | The steps needed to install, build and test a new NeXtMidas installation. | X | X | X |  |
NeXtMidas User's Guide | The core operating concepts for NeXtMidas. Also serves as a guide for new users. | X | X | X |  |
Source Code Documentation (API) | The Java source code for all libraries, primitives and intrinsics. |  | X | X |  | X
Explain Files | How to use a specific NeXtMidas command. |  | (1) | (1) | X |
(1) Grouped by option tree; the standard NeXtMidas commands are under `SYS`.