add a general understanding section in README.md

[FuPeiJiang]

(use UEFI if you can)

UEFI: no MBR involved

UEFI looks for .EFI files in fat(32/16/12) partition.
your Windows .EFI is in NTFS partition (UEFI cannot see it)
we're going to make a fat32 partition with .EFI that will chainload Windows .EFI (the chainloader .EFI can see Windows .EFI)

1. we put .EFI files from UEFI:NTFS in the fat32 partition
   we download from here, it's an .img, if you mount it, you'll see .EFI files
2. when you boot using .EFI from UEFI:NTFS
   UEFI:NTFS will find the first Windows partition or NTFS partition
   and chainload .EFI: for x64 systems, it's /efi/boot/bootx64.efi

BIOS: no .EFI file involved

BIOS looks in the MBR to see what to boot

1. GRUB writes to the MBR to make it boot into GRUB
2. normally GRUB has a menu (Ex: Ubuntu Menu), but we tell GRUB to directly boot into windows
   by making grub.cfg exactly as such:

ntldr /bootmgr
boot

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BIOS is bad: MBR can only tell BIOS to boot one operating system, MBR telling BIOS to boot into GRUB let's us use many operating systems.
UEFI looks for .EFI files, if you have many .EFI files, you can have many boot options listed in UEFI boot order menu.
though having .EFI in NTFS doesn't help, because UEFI doesn't see NTFS.

some motherboards provide drivers to see NTFS: in this case, you don't need the fat32 partition, it sees the .EFI in the NTFS Windows Partition.

[FuPeiJiang]

I think every project needs a general understanding section in README.md, to help new contributors understand, well, here it wasn't really needed because the python code is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO clean. tysm, I was really confused about the bootable magic, was doing tests, found this repo and it helped me understand, I don't think I could've otherwise

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also, ./WoeUSB/core.py is the main stuff

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I had to move
./WoeUSB/woeusb to ./woeusb
./WoeUSB/woeusbgui to ./woeusbgui

or else it said module not found (I don't remember the exact error message, I'm on Windows now)
I was running directly from source.

should we move these ?

[WaxyMocha]

About general understanding, it might be a good idea, but I would do it in Wiki and just link it in README.

[brlin-tw]

Or in https://github.com/WoeUSB/WoeUSB/wiki since the content shall be the same for both projects.

I've created WoeUSB boot process explained · WoeUSB/WoeUSB Wiki just for a start.

[brlin-tw]

I doubt whether we should add the link to the README since people should be able to prepare an installer drive without knowing the underlying details...

Maybe it should be added in the "How to use " section of the README as an auxiliary material.

[FuPeiJiang]

it is totally not "How to use"
it's to help people become contributors
CONTRIBUTING.md then, but I fear no one reads that.

so better link to GENERAL UNDERSTANDING in README.md
it'd be good to help users understand the process (if they want to)
maybe gain more contributors

[FuPeiJiang]

I think we should put my explanation as LEVEL1, and show it first.
after someone understands that, they can understand LEVEL2. (I'd rank this as LEVEL2.5)

LEVEL2.5 is too long and doesn't hightlight the essential, so it's hard to grasp the essential

normally I'm only interested in what I need

so:
general understanding LEVEL1
WoeUSB boot process explained LEVEL2

[FuPeiJiang]

yeah... I think we shouldn't put it in the wiki because I totally missed it.
nothing points to the wiki in README.md or I missed that too

a link to general understanding should be in README.md or CONTRIBUTING.md
because normally the wiki is empty (so no one looks there), and it isn't a good place to put documentation/wiki. (it's not searchable)

my favorite documentation is https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/AutoHotkey.htm
here's the source
it's searchable
you can even search it this way:
https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/{your search query}.htm
https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/==.htm
https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/array.htm

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where are the files to the wiki located ? can it only be edited on github ?
I can't PR to the wiki. I suggest creating a repo for the wiki, or putting the wiki in a folder in the main repo.

[FuPeiJiang]

GENERAL UNDERSTANDING

could help people do/write variations
for example: I want to put Ubuntu And Windows in one USB. and I've finally managed to do that.

you don't need UEFI:NTFS

you can use .EFI from GRUB and GRUB can do the chainloading:

menuentry "Windows 10" {
    insmod ntfs
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod search_fs_uuid
    insmod chain
    insmod part_gpt
    search --set=root --label windows --hint hd0,msdos2
    chainloader /efi/boot/bootx64.efi
}

of course this GRUB is for Ubuntu. But with this menuentry it can also boot Windows

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explaining the function of code
not the implementation.
could help people find better implementations

so a file explaining function: not even pseudocode.
if I write that, could it be added to the project?