Re: IDL Documentation tool?

[plugge(at)biv7.sr.fh-mannheim.de (Michael Plugge)]

In article <3A6CCA1B.496CB694@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu>, Daniel Luebbert
<luebbert@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu> writes:
|>Hi there,
|>
|>I am trying to generate a documentation for a large bunch of IDL
|>programs of mine,
|>so that someone else could easily understand and use them.
|>Does anyone know of a program, PERL script, commercial tool or whatever
|>else
|>which could generate a complete documentation from the source code?
|>
|>It should certainly include a list of routines in each file, with the
|>respective arguments and keywords,
|>and also extra any header documentation like "doc_library" does.
|>But ideally it should also analyze which other routines each file uses,
|>maybe detect common block incompatibilities,
|>etc., etc...
|>
|>I know for instance that Java comes with a neat little program
|>"javadoc", which does much of the above.
|>If anybody is aware of something similar for IDL, I would be most
|>grateful for a hint.
|>
|>Daniel

Daniel,
some time ago I wrote a prettyprinter for IDL that could be a (first!!)
approach for your problem. It converts an IDL source file to LaTeX, optionally
generating an index of routines and common blocks and a table of contents.
I use it frequently to generate listings of the exercises done by the students
here (it is used also as a kind of printer filter for IDL).

If you are interested, I could send you an example .dvi or .ps file for an
first impression. The converter is freeware (GNU GPL) and comes with full
source; so you can modify it for your needs.

Best regards

Michael Plugge