Subsections
This is the reference manual for FPDOC, a free documentation tool for
Pascal units. It describes the usage of FPDOC and how to write
documentation with it.
It attempts to be complete, but the tool is under continuous development,
and so there may be some slight differences between the documentation and
the actual program. In case of discrepancy, the sources of the tool are the
final reference. A README or CHANGES file may be provided, and
can also give some hints as to things which have changed. In case of doubt,
these files or the sources are authoritative.
FPDOC is a tool that combines a Pascal unit file and a description file
in XML format and produces reference documentation for the unit. The
reference documentation contains documentation for all of the identifiers
found in the unit's interface section. The documentation is fully
cross-referenced, making it easy to navigate. It is also possible to refer
to other documentation sets written with FPDOC, making it possible to
maintain larger documentation sets for large projects.
Contrary to some other documentation techniques, FPDOC does not require the
presence of formatted comments in the source code. It takes a source file
and a documentation file (in XML format) and merges these two together to a
full documentation of the source. This means that the code doesn't get
obfuscated with large pieces of comment, making it hard to read and
understand.
FPDOC is package-oriented, which means that it considers units as part of a
package. Documentation for all units in a package can be generated in one
run.
At the moment of writing, the documentation can be generated in the
following formats:
- HTML
- Plain HTML. Javascript is used to be able to show a small window
with class properties or class methods, but the generated HTML will work
without JavaScript as well. Style sheets are used to do the markup, so the
output can be customised.
- XHTML
- As HTML, but using a more strict syntax.
- LaTeX
- LaTeX files, which can be used with the fpc.sty file
which comes with the Free Pascal documentation. From this output, PDF documents can
be generated, and with the use of latex2rtf, RTF or Winhelp files. Text
files can also be generated.
Plans exist to create direct text output and RTF output as well.
If the documentation doesn't give an answer to your questions,
you can obtain more information on the Internet, on the following address:
http://fpdoc.freepascal.org/
It contains links to download all FPDOC related material.
Finally, if you think something should be added to this manual
(entirely possible), please do not hesitate and contact me at
michael@freepascal.org.
2004-02-13