docs/tech/tn0003.txt

   1                      Adding wxWidgets class documentation
   2                      ====================================
   3
   4 This note is aimed at people wishing to add documentation for a
   5 class to either the main wxWidgets manual, or to their own
   6 manual.
   7
   8 wxWidgets uses Doxygen to process header input files with embedded
   9 documentation in the form of C++ comments and output in HTML, and XML
  10 (Doxygen itself can also output Latex, manpages, RTF, PDF etc).
  11 See http://www.doxygen.org for more info about Doxygen.
  12
  13 If you want to add documentation of a new class/function to the
  14 existing manual in docs/doxygen, you need to create a new .h file,
  15 e.g. myclass.h, under the interface folder, which contains the public
  16 interface of the new class/function in C++ syntax.
  17 The documentation can then be added in form of Doxygen comments to
  18 the header file.
  19
  20 You may also want to write a separate topic file,
  21 e.g. docs/doxygen/overviews/myclass.h, and add the entry to
  22 docs/doxygen/mainpages/topics.h.
  23
  24 If applicable, also add an entry to docs/doxygen/mainpages/categories.h.
  25
  26 You can generate a first raw version of myclass.h simply taking its
  27 "real" header and removing all the private and protected sections and
  28 in general removing everything the user "shouldn't know": i.e. all things
  29 which are implementation details.
  30
  31
  32 Running Doxygen
  33 ===============
  34
  35 First, make sure you have a recent version of Doxygen installed in your system.
  36
  37 For HTML:
  38
  39   1) cd wxWidgets/docs/doxygen
  40   2) run ./regen.sh [Unix]    or   regen.bat [Windows]
  41
  42 [TODO: istructions for generation of other formats]
  43
  44
  45 Important Dos and Don'ts
  46 ========================
  47
  48 DO:
  49
  50 - Doxygen supports both commands in the form \command and @command;
  51   all wxWidgets documentation uses the @command form.
  52
  53 - strive to use dedicated Doxygen commands for e.g. notes, lists,
  54   sections, etc. The "Special commands" page:
  55     http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/commands.html
  56   is your friend!
  57   It's also very important to make a consistent use of the ALIASES
  58   defined by wxWidgets' Doxyfile. Open that file for more info.
  59
  60 - when you write true, false and NULL with their C++ semantic meaning,
  61   then use the @true, @false and @NULL commands.
  62
  63 - separe different paragraphs with an empty comment line.
  64   This is important otherwise Doxygen puts everything in the same
  65   paragraph making the result less readable.
  66
  67 - leave a blank comment line between a @section, @subsection, @page
  68   and the next paragraph.
  69
  70 - test your changes, both reading the generated HTML docs and by looking
  71   at the "doxygen.log" file produced (which will warn you about any
  72   eventual mistake found in the comments).
  73
  74 - quote all the following characters prefixing them with a "@" char:
  75
  76          @  $  \  &  <  >  #  %
  77
  78   unless they appear inside a @code or @verbatim section.
  79
  80 - when using a Doxygen alias like @itemdef{}, you need to escape the
  81   comma characters which appear on the first argument, otherwise Doxygen
  82   will interpret them as the marker of the end of the first argument and
  83   the beginning of the second argument's text.
  84
  85   E.g. if you want to define the item "wxEVT_MACRO(id, func)" you need to
  86        write:
  87             @itemdef{wxEVT_MACRO(id\, func), This is the description of the macro}
  88
  89   Also note that you need to escape only the commas of the first argument's text;
  90   second argument can have up to 10 commas unescaped (see the Doxyfile for the
  91   trick used to implement this).
  92
  93 DON'T:
  94
  95 - use jargon, such as 'gonna', or omit the definite article.
  96   The manual is intended to be a fluent, English document and
  97   not a collection of rough notes.
  98
  99 - use non-alphanumeric characters in link anchors.
 100
 101 - use Doxygen @b @c @e commands when referring to more than a single word;
 102   in that case you need to use the <b>...</b>, <tt>...</tt>, <em>...</em>
 103   HTML-style tags instead
 104
 105 - use HTML style tags for creation of tables or lists.
 106   Use wx aliases instead like @beginTable, @row2col, @row3col, @endTable and
 107   @beginDefList, @itemdef, @endDefList, etc.
 108   See the Doxyfile for more info.
 109
 110
 111 Documentation comment for a class
 112 =================================
 113
 114 Start off with:
 115
 116 /**
 117  * @class wxMyClass
 118  * @headerfile wx/myclass.h
 119  *
 120  * ...here goes the description...
 121  *
 122  * @beginEventTable
 123  * @event{EVT_SOME_EVENT(id, func)}:
 124  *        Description for EVT_SOME_EVENT.
 125  * @endEventTable
 126  *
 127  * @beginStyleTable
 128  * @style{wxSOME_STYLE}:
 129  *        Description for wxSOME_STYLE.
 130  * ...
 131  * @endStyleTable
 132  *
 133  * @beginExtraStyleTable
 134  * @style{wxSOME_EXTRA_STYLE}:
 135  *        Description for wxSOME_EXTRA_STYLE.
 136  * ...
 137  * @endExtraStyleTable
 138  *
 139  * @library{wxbase}
 140  * @stdobjects
 141  * ...here goes the list of predefined instances...
 142  *
 143  * @seealso
 144  * ...here goes the see-also list...
 145  * you can make references to topic overviews or other
 146  * manual pages using the @ref command
 147  */
 148
 149 Note that the events, styles and extra-styles tables as
 150 well as @stdobjects and @seealso lists are optional.
 151
 152 Also note that you shouldn't use the Doxygen builtin @sa command
 153 for the see-also list but rather the wxWidgets' alias @seealso
 154 in this case.
 155
 156
 157 Documentation comment for a function
 158 ====================================
 159
 160 Start off with:
 161
 162 /**
 163  * ...here goes the description of the function....
 164  *
 165  * @param param1
 166  * ...here goes the description for the first parameter of this function
 167  * @param param2
 168  * ...here goes the description for the second parameter of this function
 169  * ...
 170  *
 171  * @return
 172  * ...here goes the description of what the function returns...
 173  *
 174  * @note ...here go any eventual notes about this function...
 175  *
 176  * @remarks ...here go any eventual remarks about this function...
 177  *
 178  * @sa ...here goes the see-also list...
 179  */
 180
 181 Note that the @return, @note, @remarks, @sa commands are optional.
 182
 183 Also note that unlike for class' description, you should use the doxygen
 184 builtin @sa command here for see-also lists.
 185
 186 The @param command has an optional attribute specifying the direction of
 187 the attribute. Possible values are "in" and "out". E.g.
 188
 189 /**
 190  * Copies bytes from a source memory area to a destination memory area,
 191  * where both areas may not overlap.
 192  * @param[out]     dest   The memory area to copy to.
 193  * @param[in]      src    The memory area to copy from.
 194  * @param[in]      n      The number of bytes to copy.
 195  * @param[in,out]  pmisc  Used both as input and as output.
 196  */
 197 void func(void *dest, const void *src, size_t n, void *pmisc);
 198
 199
 200 Documentation comment for a topic overview
 201 ==========================================
 202
 203 Topic overviews are stored inside the docs/doxygen/overviews folder
 204 and are completely placed inside a single comment block in the form of:
 205
 206 /*!
 207
 208  @page overview_tname wxSomeStuff overview
 209
 210  This page provides an overview of the wxSomeStuff and related classes.
 211  ....
 212
 213  @li @ref overview_tname_intro
 214  @li @ref overview_tname_details
 215  ...
 216
 217  <hr>
 218
 219
 220  @section overview_tname_intro Introduction
 221
 222  ...here goes the introduction to this topic...
 223
 224
 225  @section overview_tname_details Details
 226
 227  ...here go the details to this topic...
 228
 229 */
 230
 231 Note that there is a convention in the anchor link names.
 232 Doxygen in fact requires that for each @page, @section, @subsection, etc tag,
 233 there is a corresponding link anchor.
 234
 235 The following conventions are used in wxWidgets doxygen comments:
 236
 237 1) all "main" pages of the manual (those which are placed in docs/doxygen/mainpages)
 238    have link anchors which begin with "page_"
 239
 240 2) all topic overviews (those which are placed in docs/doxygen/overviews) have link
 241    anchors which begin with "overview_"
 242
 243 3) all @section, @subsection, @subsubsection tags should have as link anchor name
 244    the name of the parent section plus a specific word separed with an underscore; e.g.:
 245
 246 /*!
 247
 248  @page overview_tname wxSomeStuff overview
 249
 250  @section overview_tname_intro Introduction
 251   @subsection overview_tname_intro_firstpart First part
 252   @subsection overview_tname_intro_secondpart Second part
 253    @subsubsection overview_tname_intro_secondpart_sub Second part subsection
 254   @subsection overview_tname_intro_thirdpart Third part
 255
 256  @section overview_tname_details Details
 257  ...
 258
 259 */
 260
 261
 262 === EOF ===
 263
 264 Author: FM (under the lines of the previous technote about tex2rtf)
 265 Version: $Id$