On Mon, Sep 06, 2010 at 08:08:10AM -0700, Johan Hake wrote: > On Monday September 6 2010 05:47:27 Anders Logg wrote: > > On Mon, Sep 06, 2010 at 12:19:03PM +0200, Kristian Ølgaard wrote: > > > > Do we have any functionality in place for handling documentation that > > > > should be automatically generated from the C++ interface and > > > > documentation that needs to be added later? > > > > > > No, not really. > > > > ok. > > > > > > I assume that the documentation we write in the C++ header files (like > > > > Mesh.h) will be the same that appears in Python using help(Mesh)? > > > > > > Yes and no, the problem is that for instance overloaded methods will > > > only show the last docstring. > > > So, the Mesh.__init__.__doc__ will just contain the Mesh(std::str > > > file_name) docstring. > > > > It would not be difficult to make the documentation extraction script > > we have (in fenics-doc) generate the docstrings module and just > > concatenate all constructor documentation. We are already doing the > > parsing so spitting out class Foo: """ etc would be easy. Perhaps that > > is an option. > > There might be other overloaded methods too. We might try to setle on a format > for these methods, or make this part of the 1% we need to handle our > self.
ok. Should also be fairly easy to handle. > > > > But in some special cases, we may want to go in and handle > > > > documentation for special cases where the Python documentation needs > > > > to be different from the C++ documentation. So there should be two > > > > different sources for the documentation: one that is generated > > > > automatically from the C++ header files, and one that overwrites or > > > > adds documentation for special cases. Is that the plan? > > > > > > The plan is currently to write the docstrings by hand for the entire > > > dolfin module. One of the reasons is that we rename/ignores > > > functions/classes in the *.i files, and if we we try to automate the > > > docstring generation I think we should make it fully automatic not > > > just part of it. > > > > If we can make it 99% automatic and have an extra file with special > > cases I think that would be ok. > > Agree. > > > > Also, we will need to change the syntax in all *example* code of the > > > docstrings. Maybe it can be done, but I'll need to give it some more > > > careful thought. We've already changed the approach a few times now, so > > > I really like the next try to close to our final implementation. > > > > I agree. :-) > > > > > > Another thing to discuss is the possibility of using Doxygen to > > > > extract the documentation. We currently have our own script since (I > > > > assume) Doxygen does not have a C++ --> reST converter. Is that > > > > correct? > > > > > > I don't think Doxygen has any such converter, but there exist a > > > project http://github.com/michaeljones/breathe > > > which makes it possible to use xml output from Doxygen in much the > > > same way as we use autodoc for the Python module. I had a quick go at > > > it but didn't like the result. No links on the index pages to function > > > etc. So what we do now is better, but perhaps it would be a good idea > > > to use Doxygen to extract the docstrings for all classes and > > > functions, I tried parsing the xml output in the > > > test/verify_cpp_ > > > ocumentation.py script and it should be relatively > > > simple to get the docstrings since these are stored as attributes of > > > classes/functions. > > > > Perhaps an idea would be to use Doxygen for parsing and then have our > > own script that works with the XML output from Doxygen? > > I did not know we allready used Doxygen to extract information about class > structure from the headers. I thought it was you who implemented the Doxygen documentation extraction? > What are the differences between using the XML from Doxygen to also > extract the documentation, and the approach we use today? Pros (of using Doxygen): - Doxygen is developed by people that presumably are very good at extracting docs from C++ code - Doxygen might handle some corner cases we can't handle? Cons (of using Doxygen): - Another dependency - We still need to write a script to parse the XML - The parsing of /// stuff from C++ code is very simple -- Anders _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~fenics Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~fenics More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
