◄►The lpdoc Documentation Generator »

Version/Change Log

Version 3.0 (2011/7/7, 16:33:15 CEST)
  • Major redesign of the documentation generator:
    • LPdoc redesigned to work internally with a 'doctree' representation (a-la Pillow). (Jose Morales)
    • A native HTML backend (not generated from texi). (Jose Morales)
    • Allow custom website generation from LPdoc documents. (Jose Morales)
    • Two passes for document generation, allowing resolution of bibliographical references in all backends (including HTML). (Jose Morales)
    • doc_structure/1 in SETTINGS allows structure in LPdoc documents (sections can really be nested inside parts). (Jose Morales)
    • :- doc(_,_) is the recommended syntax for documentation comments now.
    • Replacing :- comment by :- doc in LPdoc code, updated documentation. (Jose Morales)

  • General improvements and bug fixes:
    • Designed a logo for LPdoc. (Jose Morales)
    • LPdoc comments can now be written using %! style comment syntax. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
    • Now commas etc. are allowed in section names (so that they can be used in other formats). They are eliminated automatically in texi and info. This avoids wrong section names --and thus dangling pointers-- in generated texinfo files. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
    • Eliminated superfluous copy of summary in info mode. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
    • Eliminated unsupported chars that broke texi manual cross-referencing. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
    • Improved treatment of accents (dotless i and dotless j, o, etc.). (Manuel Hermenegildo)
    • Initial size passed to xdvi more appropriate for current xdvis. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
    • Accents in bibliography fixed. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
    • Now repeated sections are disambiguated. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
    • Eliminated unnecessary escaping (especially for &). (Manuel Hermenegildo)
    • Better detection of when version is not available. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
    • Added new doc(address, _) comment, which is the right place to put address/contact information in manuals (Jose Morales)
    • Added new @version{} command (expands to the version of the software to be documented). (Jose Morales)
    • Shorter SETTINGS.pl files (with some rudimentary, assertion-based checking of options) (Jose Morales)
    • Bug fix: '@@ include' and '@@ includeverbatim' are no longer a problem (space can be omitted) (Jose Morales)
    • Added and documented a new documentation filetype (for some parts of the manual that contains only documentation). That avoids the old trick of declaring a fake main/0 predicate. (Jose Morales)
    • Style for subtitle added automatically (in texinfo, it is emph; in HTML it is normal text with smaller font). The entries in subtitle_extra are free-form. (Jose Morales)
    • Bugs and changelog appear now in the global links in the HTML backend. (Jose Morales)
    • Merged code that documented .pl and .lpdoc files. (Jose Morales)
    • No copyright section if no copyright comment. (Jose Morales)
    • Auxiliary documentation files ending in '_doc' displayed incorrect names for the module (ending in '_doc'). E.g., use_package(foo_doc) was displayed instead of use_package(foo_doc). Fixed. (Jose Morales)
    • In verbatim enviroments, new-line characters are removed from the beginning. (Jose Morales)
    • Fix wrong use of erase/1 for clauses (which resulted in segmentation fault when documentation generation failed) (Jose Morales)
    • Fixed image generation (now uses .png files for HTML) (Jose Morales)
    • New code for text escape fixed some problems, like '@/1' operator not being displayed corretly in Info. (Jose Morales)
    • Colors for Prolog variables (in HTML). (Jose Morales)
    • Added @begin{alert} environment for alert messages (like cartouche, but in red). (Jose Morales)
    • Supporting '@"' command for umlaut, in addition to '@..' (Jose Morales)
    • Double quotes correctly translated to HTML (Jose Morales)
    • @author command to reference authors (changed command referring to people by @author, in all the documentation) (Jose Morales)
    • Simplification of documentation setting files (see the documentation for further details) (Jose Morales)
    • Using open for lpdoc htmlview command in MacOS X (Jose Morales)
    • Adding html and pdf formats as options for emacs customization of LPdoc (html is the default one now) (Jose Morales)
    • Improved detection of external tools for image conversion. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
    • Added section name syntax auto-correction. This avoids wrong section names --and thus dangling pointers-- in generated texinfo files. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
    • Document size more appropriate for current xdvi versions. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
    • Lpdoc no longer adds .info filename suffix to .infoindex entries since it breaks Debian's install-info --remove and goes against standard practice anyway. (Jose Luis Gonzalez)
    • Added option --cv, --comment-version, that tells lpdoc if the file has version comment. Formatting of lpdoc version comments completed. (Edison Mera)
    • Improved handling of option values. Added -d option to lpdoc, that allows defining additional values in the argument. Added options -l and -m that are similar to the corresponding lpmake options. (Edison Mera)

  • Support for in-code sections (experimental):
    • Latex-like font-lock highlight of sectioning documentation comments (:- doc(C, "..."), with C one of title, section, and subsection).

      Currently the section and subsection comments are still ignored by LPdoc. (Jose Morales)

  • Support for mathematical notation (experimental):
    • new @math{...} and @begin{displaymath}...@end{displaymath} enviroments are supported (see the documentation for more details) (Jose Morales)
    • In documentation strings, single \ must be escaped (e.g. '@math{\\lambda}') (Jose Morales)
    • Supported in both the texinfo and HTML (using MathJax) backends. (Jose Morales)
    • Added @defmathcmd{Cmd}{N}{Def} and @defmathcmd{Cmd}{Def}, both for texinfo and HTML backends. Those LPdoc commands define new mathematical environments (equivalent to \newcommand). (Jose Morales)

Version 2.1 (2004/10/28, 16:38:17 CEST)

Last version before moving to subversion. 1.9 and 2.0 were merged. 1.9 (based on makefiles) is deprecated.

  • New functionality:

    • Use of :- doc declarations (as a shorthand for comment) now allowed. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

    • Made xdvi viewer, ps viewer, and xdvi zoom size be paramenters (the latter since new versions of xdvi display sizes differently than old ones). (Manuel Hermenegildo)

    • Processing options can now be set for each file independently. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

    • Proper pdf generation now achieved in most cases, thanks to newer versions of dvips. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

    • Added option -c Target in lpdoc, that treats Target as a separate component. (Edison Mera)
    • Added option -f ConfigFile in lpdoc, that uses the file ConfigFile instead the default LPSETTINGS.pl. (Edison Mera)

    • Added option ascii that generates documentation in ascii plain format. (Edison Mera)

    • Added --help option. Is equal to -h. (Edison Mera)

    • Added option testsettings to check that the settings file is correctly specified. (Edison Mera)

    • Changed generate_html_pointer/5 by generate_html_pointer/6 to let it work with any given directory, and not only the working directory. (Edison Mera)

Version 2.0 (1999/8/17, 17:28:52 CEST)
Major change to eliminate need for Makefiles: lpdoc is now a standalone command (Manuel Hermenegildo). Proceeds in parallel with further development of 1.9. Merge pending. Previous changes incorporated since 1.8:

  • New functionality:

    • A new parameter PAPERTYPE can be set in the SETTINGS file which controls the format of printed output. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

    • Default pdf viewer is now ghostview, sicne recent versions handle pdf well. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

    • Changed default style sheet in order to show <PRE> lines with a monospaced font. (Daniel Cabeza Gras)

    • Mode definitions now documented in a separate section. The way they are documented has been improved. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

    • References in files now updated only if .refs file is not empty. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

    • A copy of the html style sheet is now included in distributions. Also Copies of the html and info index head and tail files. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

    • Made pointers relative in library html templates. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

  • Bug fixes and other minor improvements:

    • Declarations now documented properly even if they have the same name and arity as a predicate. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

    • Accented i's now translate correctly in html. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

    • Fixed a funny installation quirk: while we want to install LPdoc in the Ciao group, the manuals produced by LPdoc should be installed in the LPdoc group. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

    • Now using lpdoclib path alias. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

    • Fixed bug in ordering of html indices in recent Linux versions, related to varying file listing order depending on locale. (Manuel Hermenegildo)

Version 1.9 (1999/7/8, 18:19:43 MEST)

In this release the name of the application has changed to lpdoc.

  • New commands:
    • @begin{cartouche} and @end{cartouche} commands now supported.
    • @foonote command now supported.
    • New gmake htmlview command (makes a running netscape visit the generated html manual). Suggested by Per Cederberg.
    • New gmake distclean command, intended for software distributions. Leaves the generated documents and eliminates all intermediate files (including .texic/.texi files).
    • Adobe pdf format now supported as a valid target. Unfortunately, embedded .eps figures are not supported at this time in pdf output.
    • The second argument of :- comment(hide,...). and :- comment(doinclude,...). declarations can now be a list of predicate names.
    • A -u File option is now supported so that a file including, e.g., path alias definitions can be included (this has the same functionality as the -u option in ciaoc).
    • Now typing just gmake does nothing. In order to do something at least one target should be specified. This was necessary so that recursive invocations with empty arguments did nothing.
    • Added a new filetype: part. This allows splitting large documents into parts, each of which groups a series of chapters.

  • Other new functionality:
    • A style sheet can now be specified which allows modifying many characteristics of the html output (fonts, colors, background, ...) (thanks to Per Cederberg).
    • Added limited support for changing page numbering (in SETTINGS file).
    • The concept indexing commands (@index, @cindex, and @concept) now work somewhat differently, to make them consistent with other indexing commands.
    • The old usage index is now called, more appropriately, global index. Correspondingly, changed things so that now every definition goes to the global index in addition to its definitional index.
    • Imported files from module user are now documented separately.
    • Now a warning is issued if characters unsupported by info are used in section names.
    • Navigation in html docs was improved.
    • The table of contents in printed manuals now contains entries for the individual descriptions of predicates, props, regtypes, declarations, etc. This can be shut off with the -shorttoc option.
    • Made more silent in normal conditions: file inclusion is muted now unless -v option is selected.
    • A single .texi file is now constructed (by grouping the .texic files generated for all components) in which the references and menus are resolved. This has the advantage that the process of resolving references and menus has now been sped up very significantly. Also, texi is now a valid target (perhaps useful for distributions). The generated files now have texic (texinfo component).
    • Now, declarations are always documented as long as there is a decl assertion. Also, they are now documented in a separate section.

  • Bug fixes and other minor improvements:
    • The directory containing html manual is now called BASENAME_html instead of just BASENAME, which was confusing.
    • Now requesting building a .ps only does not leave a .dvi behind (useful for distributions).
    • File names can now include the symbol _ even if they contain figures.
    • TeX-related intermediate files are now cleaned up after each run in order to avoid clutter.
    • Fixed -modes, which was broken since going to the new normalizer (was normalizer problem). Fixed problem with no documentation when only modes given.
    • Fixed duplication of documentation for internal predicates when also exported.
    • Minor formatting problem when no documentation nor definition found for a regtype fixed.
    • Determining exports, imports, etc. now done solely by calls to c_itf library (and, thus, synchronized with ciaoc compiler).
(Manuel Hermenegildo)

Version 1.8 (1999/3/24, 21:15:33 MET)

This version completes the port to using the ciao 0.8 modular assertion processing library. In addition, it includes the following improvements:

  • Now, if the name of a file being documented ends in _doc, the _doc part is left out when referring to the file in the documentation (useful if one would like to place the documentation declarations in different file).
  • It is now possible to declare (via a comment/2 declaration) the intended use of a file which is not a module (i.e. a package, user, or include file), which results in correct documentation of operator definitions, new declarations, etc. The declaration is only needed for 'user' files (i.e., files to be loaded with ensure_loaded/1).
  • Separated generation of the manuals from their installation. I.e., gmake install now does not force a gmake all, which has to be done by hand. This was necessary to ensure correct installation of distributed manuals, even if modification dates are changed during installation. Previously, in some cases generation was triggered unnecessarily.
  • New -v option allows using quieter by default operation when not debugging.
  • New option -propmods makes the name of the module in which a property is defined appear in front of the property in the places where the property is used.
  • New option -noisoline makes the textual explanation of the iso/1 property not appear in the description of the usage (but the ISOsymbol does appear)
  • Two new options, -nosysmods and -noengmods, selectively avoid listing the system or engine libraries used.
  • If there is no declaration for a predicate, now a line is output with the name and arity and a simple comment saying that there is no further documentation available (this has the great advantage that then it goes in the index, and, for example in ciao, they get added to completion commands!).
  • Now, if a property or regtype declaration has no textual comment, the actual definition is given (first level only) in the place where it is documented, and a simple generic message where it is used.
  • Added @noindent and @iso commands.
  • Nicer spacing now when printing predicate names which are operators, as well as modes, etc.
  • Reporting of versions in libraries has been improved: now both the global version and the last version in which the library itself was changed are reported.
  • Exported new declarations also documented now for include-type files.
  • A module is now documented even if exports nothing at all.
  • Engine modules used now documented even if no other modules used (was a reported bug).
  • Fixed indexing of names containing @ etc. for newer versions of texinfo.
  • Tabs in verbatim modes now converted to a number of spaces (8). Not perfect, but produces better output than leaving the tabs in.
  • Tex is now run in 'nonstopmode' which means it will typically not stop if there are minor errors (but some errors may go unnoticed...).
  • The full path of the version maintenance directory is now computed (correctly) using the directory of the .pl file being documented as base.
  • Notices for missing subtitle, copyright, and summary now only given from main file and not for components.
  • Added special handling of regtype and generalized it to handle some props specially if there is a certain comp property present.

(Manuel Hermenegildo)

Version 1.7 (1998/12/2, 17:43:50 MET)
Major port to use the ciao 0.8 modular assertion processing library. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
Version 1.6 (1998/9/8, 12:49:26 MEST)

Added support for inserting images (.eps files) in text via @image command, email addresses via @email command, and url references via @uref command.

Unix 'man' output much improved. Also, it now includes a usage section. The correspoding text must be given in a string contained in the first argument of a fact of the usage_message/1 predicate which appears in the program. Also, formatting of 'man' pages has been greatly improved.

A new 'ascii' format is now supported: a simple minded ascii manual (basically, an info file without pointers).

(Manuel Hermenegildo)

Version 1.5 (1998/8/23, 20:30:32 EST)

Now supporting a @cite command (YES!). It automatically accesses the bib entries in .bib files (using bibtex) and produces a 'References' appendix. @cite can be used in the text strings exactly as ite in LaTeX. The set of bib files to be used is given in the SETTINGS file.

Defining the type of version maintenance that should be performed by the emacs ciao.el mode (i.e., whether version numbers are in a given directory or in the file itself) is controlled now via a standard commment/2 declaration. You should now write a declaration such as:

:- comment(version_maintenance,dir('../version')).

to state that control info is kept in directory ../version. This has the advantage that it is shorter than the previous solution and that lpdoc can read this info easily. Using this guarantees that the version numbers of the manuals always concide with those of the software.

Generation of indices of manuals (.htmlbullet files): if several manuals are installed in the same directory, an index to them is now generated at the beginning of the html cover page describing the directory.

(Manuel Hermenegildo)

Version 1.4 (1998/8/4, 19:10:35 MET DST)

The set of paths defined in SETTINGS for finding the source files are now also used to find 'included' files. As a result, full path is not needed any more in, e.g, @include command.

New @ref command which can be used to refer to chapeter, sections, subsections, etc..

Support for recent minor changes in assertion format, including '#' as comment separator.

Used modules are now separated in documentation (in the interface description) by type (user, system, engine...).

Supports new 'hide' option in comments, to prevent an exported predicate from being documented. This is useful for example for avoiding mentioning in the documentation multifile predicates which are not intended to be modified by the user.

(Manuel Hermenegildo)

Version 1.3 (1998/7/10, 16:35:2 MET DST)

Exports are now listed in the chapter header separated by kind (pred, types, properties, ...).

The list of other modules used by a module is now separated in the chapter header into User and System modules (controlled by two sets of paths in SETTINGS).

New hide option of comment/2 decl prevents an exported predicate from being included in the documentation: :- comment(hide,p/3).

(Manuel Hermenegildo)

Version 1.2 (1998/6/4, 9:12:19 MET DST)
Major overall improvements... (Manuel Hermenegildo)
Version 1.1 (1998/3/31)
Incorporated autodoc and autodoformats library to source in order to make distribution standalone. Improvements to installation and documentation. Makefiles now also install documentation in public areas and produce global indices. Several documents can cohexist in the same installation directory. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
Version 1.0 (1998/2/24)
First Ciao-native distribution, with installation. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
Version 0.9 (1998/2/24)
Intermediate version, preparing for first major release. Modified Makefile and SETTINGS to handle installation of manuals. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
Version 0.6 (1998/2/10)
Added new indices and options, as well as more orthogonal handling of files. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
Version 0.4 (1998/2/24)
Added support for nroff -m formatting (e.g., for man pages). Added support for optional selection of indices to be generated. Added support for reexported predicates. Added (low level) ascii format. Added option handling (-nobugs -noauthors -noversion -nochangelog -nopatches -modes and -headprops ...). -literalprops. Fixed presentation when there are multiple kinds of assertions. Better error checking for includefact/includedef. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
Version 0.3 (1998/2/10)
Changed file reader to use Ciao native builtins. As a result, syntax files and full Ciao syntax now supported. Major reorganization of the code to make formatting more orthogonal. Now applications and libraries can be components or main files, standalone or with components interchangeably. @includefact, new predicate types, used libraries now precisely detected, docinclude option. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
Version 0.2 (1997/12/16)
Ported to native ciao. Version handling, selection of indices, @include. Added generation of an html brief description for a global index. Added unix manual page generation. Added support for specifying library paths. -l option for htmlindex and man. Installation improved: now all files for one application in the same directory. (Manuel Hermenegildo)
Version 0.1 (1997/7/30)
First official version (major rewrite from several previous prototypes, autodocumented!). (Manuel Hermenegildo)
Version 0.0 (1996/10/10)
First prototype.

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