[fpc-devel] Errors with make rtl.chk on Windows

[Hans-Peter Diettrich]

Michael Van Canneyt schrieb:

>>> One objection is for instance that your proposal will cause all XML 
>>> files to be loaded both when FCL and RTL documentation are created.
>>
>> Already included: all XML files are discarded, when they don't 
>> contribute to the current package :-)
> 
> Because of the loose coupling between XML files and source files, there 
> is no way to know if a XML file is contributing or not, unless you 
> impose some convention like 1 unit = 1 file with equal filenames, or 
> parse the XML file to detect the module it documents or start moving XML 
> files to directories.

Reading the XML files for both RTL and FCL takes almost no time, 
compared to the time spent in generating the documentation. Lazarus 
already maintains package documentation in a dedicated directory, so 
that it's up to the documentation maintainers what they put into these 
directories. You remember my question about the suggested organization 
of documentation?


> I went ahead and improved the tool I announced earlier. The end goal is 
> to use this tool to create the project file from the Makefiles for the 
> docs. Currently it can:
> 
> - Add directories of source files, with file mask, parser options to be 
> added to the found files, and recursion.
> - Add directories of description files, with file mask and recursion.
> - Add a list of input files (with options).
> - Add a list of description files.
> - Remove a list of input files.
> - Remove a list of description files.
> - Set/Unset engine options.
> - Perform macro substitutions on a fpdoc project file.

Nice :-)

What I'm still missing, is support for documentation writers:
- process a single unit from a project, to get XML syntax and other 
error messages.
- more verbose output for spotting such errors.

You remember my -n and -v options?


> The last is in fact probably the easiest solution for the RTL/FCL docs. 
> We can distribute a template project on which simple macro substitution 
> is performed prior to feeding it to fpdoc. Thanks to your patch for 
> creating a project file from given command-line options, I now actually 
> have such a file.
> 
> I split the tool so the class that does the actual work can be 
> integrated in e.g. a GUI tool for quick manipulation of project files.
> 
> I expect and hope the tool will solve most - if not all - of the 
> problems you experienced as well.

Thanks for all that. I'll merge it with my own work, and can supply an 
informational patch with my remaining modifications.

DoDi