[fpc-devel] fpdoc --input parameter suggestion

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

Hi,

I was playing around this morning with my console app that can
generate a script/batch file to generate documentation for fpGUI.

The content of the script file is every verbose because of the large
set of search path options inside each --input="..." parameter.

I'm not sure how the Makefiles in the FPC_Docs repository generates
fpdoc parameters, but I found that I only need to specify the search
paths in the first --input parameter. For all other documentation
units, I only need to specify the source *.pas unit in the --input
parameter. FPDoc has cached the previous search paths already, so it
can find consecutive input file without problems. This greatly reduces
the number of characters passed in the command line to fpdoc.

eg:

Before...

  --input="-Fi../src -Fu../src/corelib/x11/ -Fi../src/corelib/x11/
-Fu../src/gui/ -Fu../src/corelib/ ../src/gui/fpg_colorwheel.pas"
--descr=xml/gui/fpg_colorwheel.xml \
  --input="-Fi../src -Fu../src/corelib/x11/ -Fi../src/corelib/x11/
-Fu../src/gui/ -Fu../src/corelib/ ../src/gui/fpg_colormapping.pas"
--descr=xml/gui/fpg_colormapping.xml \
  --input="-Fi../src -Fu../src/corelib/x11/ -Fi../src/corelib/x11/
-Fu../src/gui/ -Fu../src/corelib/ ../src/gui/fpg_edit.pas"
--descr=xml/gui/fpg_edit.xml \
  --input="-Fi../src -Fu../src/corelib/x11/ -Fi../src/corelib/x11/
-Fu../src/gui/ -Fu../src/corelib/ ../src/gui/fpg_tree.pas"
--descr=xml/gui/fpg_tree.xml \
...

After....

  --input="-Fi../src -Fu../src/corelib/x11/ -Fi../src/corelib/x11/
-Fu../src/gui/ -Fu../src/corelib/ ../src/gui/fpg_colorwheel.pas"
--descr=xml/gui/fpg_colorwheel.xml \
  --input="../src/gui/fpg_colormapping.pas"
--descr=xml/gui/fpg_colormapping.xml \
  --input="../src/gui/fpg_edit.pas" --descr=xml/gui/fpg_edit.xml \
  --input="../src/gui/fpg_tree.pas" --descr=xml/gui/fpg_tree.xml \
...


The final help output is identical in each case.

So if the Makefiles don't do this already, maybe they should. That
might be enough to solve the command line limit under Windows?
Delaying the pressing need for a project file (though I think this is
still the best solution).

Alternatively... Why can't we use introduce a new --searchpath
parameter to fpdoc. That parameter contains, you guessed it, the
search path to all documentation units. Then --input parameter is
simply used to specify the source *.pas unit, nothing more. Pretty
much like my second example above.

-- 
Regards,
  - Graeme -


_______________________________________________
fpGUI - a cross-platform Free Pascal GUI toolkit
http://fpgui.sourceforge.net