2. GSAS-II Documentation¶

2.1. Tutorials¶

The primary way to learn about how to use GSAS-II is provided via ~50 topical tutorials that explore how to use different aspects of the program. Use ones that relate to your work is a strongly-encouraged way to start with GSAS-II or expand to a area. Tutorials are best accessed from within the GSAS-II GUI (in the Help menu), but can also be found here. Some older tutorials have video copies, so you can see the computer screen as the tutorial is being run.

2.2. Help pages¶

The GSAS-II GUI provides context-based help via web files that are distributed with the program, as well as can be viewed here. These help pages are not complete for all sections of the code, but do provide at least some information on how every section of the program works. The help information can also be viewed as a PDF document.

Note that the help documentation was recently reformatted and updated as MarkDown (simple text) input files found in GitHub in the MDhelp directory of the AdvancedPhotonSource/GSAS-II-tutorials repo (https://github.com/AdvancedPhotonSource/GSAS-II-tutorials/tree/main/MDhelp). Comments, corrections, additions and issue reports on Help content are most welcome.

2.3. Developer’s Documentation¶

450+ pages of code documentation generated from comments in the code and RestructuredText documentation files are found on the “Read The Docs” web site. The documentation can also be downloaded as a PDF document or as an electronic book (Epub format). Regardless of the format, this provides very useful documentation for code developers, for people interested in creating GSAS-II scripts, or incorporating GSAS-II capabilities into their software, or for those curious about how GSAS-II functions.

Note that we welcome cooperation from people interested in developing or extending GSAS-II. The code is open source and we are happy to review submitted code or consider collaborations. Code developers should start with this Developer’s Documentation.

2.4. Scripting Documentation¶

The documentation on scripting GSAS-II is contained in the Developer’s Documentation described immediately above, but an abridged version of the web site with only sections relevant to scripting is also available. This abridged version can also be downloaded as a PDF document or as an electronic book (Epub format).

2.5. Crystallography/Powder Diffraction Intro¶

For background material on powder diffraction crystallography, see the links on our Powder Diffraction Crystallography Educational Materials page, in addition to the very considerable amount of material found on other sites.