Appendix — Track D authoring rules

Track D is designed so Read the Docs (RTD) mirrors the textbook structure. This appendix documents the conventions so contributors can add chapters with minimal friction.

File naming conventions

RST pages live in docs/source.

  • Track D chapter pages:

    • business_ch01_accounting_measurement.rst

    • business_ch02_<topic>.rst

    • …

  • Track D intro/appendices:

    • business_intro.rst

    • business_appendix_*.rst

RST page template

Every Track D chapter page follows this structure:

  • Why this matters (for accountants)

  • Learning objectives

  • Accounting Connection (PDF refresher)

  • Dataset tables used (LedgerLab core / NSO v1)

  • PyStatsV1 lab (Run it)

  • Interpretation & decision memo

  • End-of-chapter problems

  • Textbook alignment notes

Script naming conventions

  • Simulator scripts (synthetic data): scripts/sim_business_*.py

  • Chapter analysis scripts: scripts/business_chXX_*.py

Makefile targets

Track D chapters should have:

  • a simulation target (writes to data/synthetic)

  • a chapter target (writes to outputs/track_d)

  • (optional) a CI smoke target with tiny sizes and deterministic seed

Tests

Every chapter should have at least one fast unit test in tests/ that validates:

  • key output artifacts are created, and

  • the most important correctness/integrity checks pass.

This is how Track D stays “engineered,” not just calculated.