Re: more comments in HTML doc

Valery Fine (fine@bnl.gov)
Thu, 6 Aug 1998 17:40:59 -0500


On 6 Aug 98 at 15:27, Pasha Murat wrote:

> Thinking about the technical part of this issue I'd say that I see
> many advantages in using header files instead of run-time
> dictionaries for generating the HTML documentation but not the vice
> versa - it is rather difficult to accept the fact that for
> generating the documentation you have at least to generate a shared
> library first - all the necessary info (.h and .cc(.cxx) files) are
> available without it.

Yes all the necessary info in there but the only question how to
pick it up. One needs some tool (C++ parser ?) for that.

Two moments:

1. The CINT dictionary is an essential part of the Html class.
Otherwise Html must be C++ parser to do job on its own.

2. There is no need to create share library.
CINT may create the dictionary on "fly" from the *.h file
directly.

Just try:

root [0] #include "mynewclass_description.h"

to get the entry of your class. No compiler / linker /share
lib are involved just CINT.

From another hand to use ROOT you should create some sort of
share library anyway with some sort of Makefile. This makefile
may generate the share library and call root in batch mode to
create and keep html up-to-day.

Coming back to your

> Thinking about the technical part of this issue I'd say that I see
> many advantages in using header files instead of run-time
> dictionaries for generating the HTML documentation

It sounds you want either

1. to avoid CINT and parse C++ itself to make Html docs (I
think it is very way the commercial products do)

2. to change CINT the way it can produce not only CINT
dictionary but Html page too.

Very like the compromise solution would be to improve THml::Convert
method to produce the Web page for *.h

In theory one is free to derive his own THtml class and override
that Convert method to supply the custom format.

May be you should try very this way.

class THtml4Header : public THtml {
public:
void Convert(. . .);
}

Looks cheap and may supply what you want.

Valery
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