Documentation suggestion (drivers for OSX) and format question

[Amit Chaudhuri]

Hi,

I have some proposed text to help Mac users get started with subsurface.  I
* think * the right way to submit is to edit the user-manual.txt file in a
git branch and then send in a diff.  If someone can confirm, I'll follow
through with this and any further submissions.

I'm curious to know how I should handle line ending/word wrap.  If I use a
carriage return at the end of each line, will I be messing up anything?

I'm also wondering if the proposed text should be inline in the "Import new
dives from your divecomputer" section just after the bullet on Mac, or
maybe referenced from there and placed in its own Appendix?

Text is written based my own experience getting started on subsurface.  I
think I risk a bit of an "everyone knows this stuff" reaction from
experienced users, but this is aimed at the others.  In my dive club I
think only one person (a VLSI chip designer) would have gotten an OSX
installation up and running on the old docs.  Comments welcome..as ever.

DOC EXTRACT START

Working out which driver to use for a Mac requires for a particular dive
computer may require some experimentation. The libdivecomputer website
provides
a useful point from which to start:
http://www.divesoftware.org/libdc/drivers.html. It lists a number of sites
for
manufacturers of the serial to usb chips which provide the necessary
conversions.  Typically, one then needs to navigate to the relevant sub
page for
"drivers" and then for "VCP drivers."  VCP stands for Virtual Com Port. You
want
VCP rather than D2XX drivers. Make sure to download the correct version for
your
particular version of OS X.

These can be downloaded to the Mac and installed in the usual way.  Details
on
how to install on OS X 10.8 differ from earlier versions due to the new
security
functions. Put simply, unless the driver has been digitally signed in an
approved way OS X will block the installation. You can either make some
changes
to your system security settings or manually override the block. The latter
seems more sensible and only involves control-clicking the installation
package
and answering some standard dialogs. You can find a high-level explanation
of
the new security features from apple here:
https://www.apple.com/osx/what-is/security.html.

Until you have the correct driver installed, subsurface will not connect to
your
dive computer. If you try one VCP driver and it still doesn't work, try the
next
manufacturer until it does.  If you run out of drivers and still can't get
things working perhaps its time to contact us via the subsurface mail
lists.

.. END

Amit
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