Hello,

What is the most recomended tool to make documentation?:

1. http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/LazDoc;
2. http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Lazarus_Documentation_Editor.

I'm writting a new component and I want to use a "doc creator" tool available in own Lazarus.

Thank you!

Both work on fpdoc files.

Mattias

silvioprog wrote

What is the most recomended tool to make documentation?:

I simply use my favourite text editor (EditPad Pro) and code templates. I don't use indentation in the XML files because unfortunately that screws with some fpdoc output formats where spaces are kept in the documentation. Lazarus's built-in doc editor doesn't allow for this as far as I know.

You can obviously use Lazarus IDE's editor itself for editing those XML files too.

EditPad Pro has the advantage that code templates can be better organised, file navigation structures can be defined for easy navigation, custom highlighting can be defined (though the default XML highlighting is just fine), and EditPad Pro can do automatic spell-checking on the content itself (ignoring XML tags).

jEdit is another very good and free (and cross platform) text editor.

Regards,
- Graeme -

What does it not allow exactly?

Mattias

Mattias Gaertner wrote

What does it not allow exactly?

The built-in editor does very weird indentation, and there is no option to switch indentation off completely. Here is a quick example I just created with the built-in editor. Also note that the built-in editor simply appends to the end of the file. So the <module> description is somewhere in the middle of the file because I didn't write it first (I know it doesn't matter to fpdoc, but it does to me).

================================
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<fpdoc-descriptions>
<package name="project1">
<module name="mycomponent">
<element name="TMyComponent">
<short>My short description</short>
<descr><printshort id="TMyComponent"/>. My long description goes here.</descr>
<seealso>TObject</seealso>
</element>
<descr><p>This unit contains my cool component.</p><p>It is just what I wanted.</p>
</descr><element name="TMyComponent.Name"><short>Describes the name of the object</short>
</element>
</module>
</package>
</fpdoc-descriptions>
=================================

I would have written it manually as follows to make sure fpdoc doesn't get whitespace errors, plus I have more control over ordering the documentation (not that it really makes a difference to fpdoc).

==================================
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<fpdoc-descriptions>
<package name="project1">

<module name="mycomponent">
<descr><p>This unit contains my cool component.</p><p>It is just what I wanted.</p></descr>

<element name="TMyComponent">
<short>My short description</short>
<descr><printshort id="TMyComponent"/>. My long description goes here.</descr>
<seealso>TObject</seealso>
</element>

<element name="TMyComponent.Name">
<short>Describes the name of the object</short>
</element>
</module>

</package>
</fpdoc-descriptions>
==================================

Doing it manually with code templates, I'm just as fast as the built-in editor, so it's note a speed thing. ;-)

Regards,
- Graeme -

I'm writting a new component and I want to use a "doc creator" tool

available in own Lazarus

My recommendation:
fpdoceditor.png
<http://free-pascal-lazarus.989080.n3.nabble.com/file/n4039867/fpdoceditor.png>

I don't really care about the generated XML as long as it's compilable. I edit from this editor and it's nice to have IDE integrated one. I can both document and code at the same time without the need to switch app.

On Sat, Dec 20, 2014 at 8:18 AM, Graeme Geldenhuys <

I use three editors (Intellij IDEA, Eclipse and Notepad++), but I want to use a tool distributed with Lazarus, because I'll make a screencast of my component installed in Lazarus IDE. :-/

On Sat, Dec 20, 2014 at 9:18 AM, Graeme Geldenhuys <

So why not add this option in the built-in editor? It seems a nice alternative to who want work using only Lazarus IDE. =)

Yes, I want it too, and this is a very nice option (I use a similar approach in other IDEs).

The documentation generated by the FPDoc is not responsive (e.g: http://goo.gl/bCJoPM), i.e., it does not open well on a mobile device.

But I believe that the FPC team can accept a patch to apply the Bootstrap ( http://getbootstrap.com/) in FPDoc and all generated documentation could have a better appearance and be compatible with any device that can render HTML. =)

silvioprog wrote

The documentation generated by the FPDoc is not responsive (e.g: http://goo.gl/bCJoPM), i.e., it does not open well on a mobile device.

That's down to your choice of CSS style sheets - not a fault of FPDoc. Simply specify a different stylesheet and the magic will start happening. :) If you don't specify your own stylesheet, FPDoc will give you the generic/default one. You are not forced to use the default stylesheet.

Regards,
- Graeme -

On Sat, Dec 20, 2014 at 7:21 PM, Graeme Geldenhuys <

Wooow, I'll use that!

Now I want to do the built-in editor work here in my PC ...

Probably not. CHM Windows viewer operates in an older IE compat mode, and not all modern sets are supported. Moreover the Lazarus help viewer would have to implement those features.