*******
Preface
*******

.. module:: preface
	:synopsis: About this manual

Audience
========

This book is written for computer literate folk who want to use
Mercurial to manage their data, but are uncomfortable using the command
line client to do so. Since TortoiseHg is a Windows shell extension it's
assumed that the user is familiar with the Windows explorer and knows
how to use it.

You can find the most up to date version of this documentation at our
`web <http://tortoisehg.org>`_ site.

Reading guide
=============

This Preface explains a little about the TortoiseHg project, the
community of people who work on it, and the licensing conditions for
using it and distributing it.

The :doc:`intro` explains what TortoiseHg is, what it does, where it
comes from and the basics for installing it on your PC.

:doc:`quick` is a quick tutorial on how to start with TortoiseHg.

:doc:`daily` is the main chapter, it describes the frequently used
components of TortoiseHg.

:doc:`settings` describes how to configure TortoiseHg.

:doc:`nonhg` describes how to use TortoiseHg as a client for
non-Mercurial servers.

:doc:`faq` has a list of common questions and their answers.

:doc:`debugging` describes how to debug any problems that you find.

TortoiseHg is free!
===================

TortoiseHg is released under 
`GPLv2 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html>`_.  You are free to
install it on as many computers as you like, and to redistribute it
according to the GPLv2 license.

Community
=========

Mailing Lists:

* `Users <https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/tortoisehg-discuss>`_ - Announcements, user Q&A, and feature discussions.
* `Developers <thg-dev@googlegroups.com>`_ - Patches, bug reports, development discussions.
* `Issues <https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/tortoisehg-issues>`_ - Notifications from the issue tracker.

And our `wiki <http://bitbucket.org/tortoisehg/thg/wiki/Home>`_ on Bitbucket.

Acknowledgements
================

Thanks to the many people who contribute to the TortoiseHg project.  It
takes a community of developers, translators, and users to build a
truly useful tool (especially users who care enough to report bugs and
file feature requests).

The TortoiseHg installer for Windows includes the TortoiseOverlays handler,
as provided by the `TortoiseSVN <http://tortoisesvn.net>`_ project.

The history viewer of TortoiseHg is based on hgview
`hgview <http://www.logilab.org/project/hgview>`_, a tool developped by
`David Douard <david.douard@logilab.fr>`_ and others, with the financial
support of `Logilab <http://www.logilab.fr>`_.


Conventions used in this manual
===============================

The following typographical conventions are used in this manual:

:kbd:`Ctrl-A`
	Indicates a key, or combination of keys, to press.

:guilabel:`Commit`
	Indicates a label, button or anything that appears in user interfaces.

:menuselection:`TortoiseHg... --> About`
	Indicates a menu choice, or a combination of menu choice, tab
	selection and GUI label.  For example
	:menuselection:`TortoiseHg...  --> Global settings --> Commit --> User name`
	means do something in :guilabel:`User name` label under
	:guilabel:`Commit` tab selectable from the menu choice
	:menuselection:`TortoiseHg... --> Global settings`.

:file:`.hg/hgrc`
	Indicates a filename or directory name.

:command:`hgtk log`
	Indicates a command to enter into command window.

``myproxy:8000``
	Indicates a text to enter into a text input field in the GUI.
	
.. note::
	This is a note.

.. warning::
	An important note. Pay attention.

.. vim: noet ts=4