Re: gtkdoc-mkdb cleanup for xml

[Toshio Kuratomi <badger prtr-13 ucsc edu>]

I have time to hack right now....  But I don't have job at the moment so
that could change ;-)  I've been hiking for two years which seems to make
people think my computer knowledge is out of date :-{

Anyhow, I've been thinking that gtk-doc has a great basic framework but it
seems like some cleanup and modularization would make it seem less like a
string of tools to be run and more like a single documentation system.
Having a single intermediate format that all the backends wrote/merged into
would make this come together conceptually.  If this was an XML format we
could also use XSLT to transform the intermediate format into output
formats:

-> Input sources:
	ver1 template files, scanning of objects, program sources, etc
-> intermediate format:
	XML representation of code w/ comments
-> Output formats (via xslt transformations):
	XML docbook, SGML docbook, call graphs, etc

There are some other projects out there (like doxygen) that seem to do a
good job of getting formatted output out the backend, but I haven't seen one
that creates a good xml middle layer or one that spits out docbook (yet --
I'm sure one's out there if I look hard enough.)  That being the case, gtk-doc
seems as good a starting point as any....

And who knows... maybe if I hack on gtk-doc I'll be "rehabilitated" and
someone will decide I'm worth hiring again.. :-)

-Toshio

On Thu, 03 May, 2001 at 07:18:36PM -0400, Damon Chaplin set free these words:
> Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
>  
> > Also, will there be an incompatilbe changes release at some time in
> > the future?  The current gtk-doc seems a little clunky (I've just read the
> > archives and it seems others have pointed out why) and I think cleaning it
> > up while switching to XML would be somewhat logical.
> 
> It may be wiser to look around at other tools available, and maybe hack
> one of them instead.
> 
> I have no time for gtk-doc at present, so I can't even contemplate major
> changes.
> 
> Damon

-- 
badger  \ "A lasting friendship is one where you never expect anything,
@prtr-13 \  always working to make the friendship better.  A good friendship
.ucsc.edu \ is one where the other person does the same."
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                                                                GA->ME 1999