<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <title>Documenting libraries</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../../../doc/src/boostbook.css" type="text/css"> <meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.75.2"> <link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Boost C++ Libraries BoostBook Documentation Subset"> <link rel="up" href="../boostbook.html" title="Chapter 30. The BoostBook Documentation Format"> <link rel="prev" href="getting/started.html" title="Getting Started"> <link rel="next" href="together.html" title="Bringing Together a BoostBook Document"> </head> <body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"> <table cellpadding="2" width="100%"><tr> <td valign="top"><img alt="Boost C++ Libraries" width="277" height="86" src="../../../boost.png"></td> <td align="center"><a href="../../../index.html">Home</a></td> <td align="center"><a href="../../../libs/libraries.htm">Libraries</a></td> <td align="center"><a href="http://www.boost.org/users/people.html">People</a></td> <td align="center"><a href="http://www.boost.org/users/faq.html">FAQ</a></td> <td align="center"><a href="../../../more/index.htm">More</a></td> </tr></table> <hr> <div class="spirit-nav"> <a accesskey="p" href="getting/started.html"><img src="../../../doc/src/images/prev.png" alt="Prev"></a><a accesskey="u" href="../boostbook.html"><img src="../../../doc/src/images/up.png" alt="Up"></a><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html"><img src="../../../doc/src/images/home.png" alt="Home"></a><a accesskey="n" href="together.html"><img src="../../../doc/src/images/next.png" alt="Next"></a> </div> <div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"> <a name="boostbook.documenting"></a>Documenting libraries</h2></div></div></div> <div class="toc"><dl> <dt><span class="section"><a href="documenting.html#boostbook.defining">Defining a BoostBook library</a></span></dt> <dt><span class="section"><a href="documenting.html#id3228981">From HTML to BoostBook</a></span></dt> <dt><span class="section"><a href="documenting.html#boostbook.sectioning">Sectioning in BoostBook</a></span></dt> </dl></div> <p>BoostBook is an extension to <a href="http://www.docbook.org" target="_top">DocBook</a>, an XML format for representing documentation. BoostBook inherits much of its functionality and many elements from DocBook that are not redocumented here. When writing BoostBook documentation, please refer also to <a href="http://docbook.org/tdg/en/index.html" target="_top">DocBook: The Definitive Guide</a>.</p> <div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"> <a name="boostbook.defining"></a>Defining a BoostBook library</h3></div></div></div> <p>BoostBook library documentation is contained entirely within a <library> XML element. To create a skeletal library, we need to create a new XML document (call it <code class="computeroutput">any.xml</code>) that contains basic information about the library. The following <a class="link" href="documenting.html#boostbook.documenting.skeletal" title="Example 30.1. A Skeletal BoostBook Library">BoostBook XML example</a> describes basic information about the <a href="http://www.boost.org/libs/any/index.html" target="_top">Boost.Any</a> library:</p> <div class="example"> <a name="boostbook.documenting.skeletal"></a><p class="title"><b>Example 30.1. A Skeletal BoostBook Library</b></p> <div class="example-contents"><pre class="programlisting"> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!DOCTYPE library PUBLIC "-//Boost//DTD BoostBook XML V1.0//EN" "http://www.boost.org/tools/boostbook/dtd/boostbook.dtd"> <library name="Any" dirname="any" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" id="any" last-revision="$Date: 2008-07-12 20:30:45 +0100 (Sat, 12 Jul 2008) $"> <libraryinfo> <author> <firstname>Kevlin</firstname> <surname>Henney</surname> </author> <librarypurpose> Safe, generic container for single values of different value types </librarypurpose> <librarycategory name="category:data-structures"/> </libraryinfo> </library> </pre></div> </div> <br class="example-break"><p>The first three lines identify this document as a BoostBook <a href="http://www.w3.org/XML/" target="_top">XML</a> document. The DOCTYPE line states that the document conforms to the BoostBook DTD, and that the top-level element is a BoostBook <library>.</p> <p>The <library> element actually describes the aspects of BoostBook library documentation. The attributes for the <library> element are:</p> <div class="variablelist"> <p class="title"><b>Attributes for the <library> element</b></p> <dl> <dt><span class="term"><code class="computeroutput">name</code></span></dt> <dd>The full name of the library, e.g., "Any"</dd> <dt><span class="term"><code class="computeroutput">dirname</code></span></dt> <dd>The name of the directory, relative to <code class="computeroutput">boost/libs</code>, in which the library resides. This name may be a relative path, such as <code class="computeroutput">math/octonion</code>, using "/" for the directory separator.</dd> <dt><span class="term"><code class="computeroutput">id</code></span></dt> <dd>A short, unique name for the library. For libraries with simple directory names (e.g., ones that do not contain a "/"), this should be the same as the <code class="computeroutput">dirname</code>. This <code class="computeroutput">id</code> will be used to identify libraries and, for HTML output, will be used as the base name for the HTML file in which the library's documentation resides, so it should use only lowercase alphanumeric characters and underscores.</dd> <dt><span class="term"><code class="computeroutput">last-revision</code></span></dt> <dd>Always set to <code class="computeroutput">$Date: 2008-07-12 20:30:45 +0100 (Sat, 12 Jul 2008) $</code>, which is expanded by CVS to include the date and time that the file was last modified.</dd> </dl> </div> <p>Inside the <library> element we have the <libraryinfo> element, which gives information about the library itself. It contains the author's name (there may be more than one <author> element), followed by the purpose of the library and the list of categorizations. The <librarypurpose> element should always contain a very short (single sentence) description of the library's purpose, and should <span class="emphasis"><em>not</em></span> terminate with a period.</p> <p>The list of categories is specified by a set of <librarycategory> elements. Each <librarycategory> element has a <code class="computeroutput">name</code> element that identifies one of the categories. The actual list of categories is in the file <code class="filename">doc/src/boost.xml</code>. </p> <p>At this point, we can apply the BoostBook XSL stylesheets to <code class="computeroutput">any.xml</code> (to DocBook) followed by a DocBook XSL stylesheet to generate HTML output, as described in <a class="xref" href="getting/started.html" title="Getting Started">the section called “Getting Started”</a>.</p> </div> <div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"> <a name="id3228981"></a>From HTML to BoostBook</h3></div></div></div> <p>Most library authors are comfortable with writing HTML documentation. Writing <a href="http://www.docbook.org" target="_top">DocBook</a> documentation (and, by extension, BoostBook documentation) is quite similar to writing HTML, except that BoostBook uses different element names from HTML (see <a class="xref" href="documenting.html#html.to.boostbook" title="Table 30.2. Converting HTML elements to BoostBook">Table 30.2, “Converting HTML elements to BoostBook”</a>) and BoostBook XML is a much more rigid format than HTML.</p> <p>One of the easiest ways to convert HTML documentation into BoostBook documentation is to use <a href="http://tidy.sourceforge.net/" target="_top">HTML Tidy</a> to transform your HTML into valid XHTML, which will make sure that all elements are properly closed, then apply the transformations in <a class="xref" href="documenting.html#html.to.boostbook" title="Table 30.2. Converting HTML elements to BoostBook">Table 30.2, “Converting HTML elements to BoostBook”</a> to the body of the XHTML document. The following command uses HTML Tidy to transform HTML into valid XHTML:</p> <pre class="programlisting"> tidy -asxhtml input.html > output.xhtml</pre> <p>When converting documentation from HTML to BoostBook, note that some redundant information that has to be manually maintained in HTML is automatically generated in BoostBook: for instance, the library categorizations, purpose, and author list described in <a class="xref" href="documenting.html#boostbook.defining" title="Defining a BoostBook library">the section called “Defining a BoostBook library”</a> are used both in the documentation for the library and to build alphabetical and categorized lists of known libraries; similarly, tables of contents are built automatically from the titles of sections in the BoostBook document.</p> <div class="table"> <a name="html.to.boostbook"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 30.2. Converting HTML elements to BoostBook</b></p> <div class="table-contents"><table class="table" summary="Converting HTML elements to BoostBook"> <colgroup> <col> <col> </colgroup> <thead><tr> <th align="left">HTML</th> <th align="left">BoostBook</th> </tr></thead> <tbody> <tr> <td align="left"><p><h1>, <h2>, etc.</p></td> <td align="left"> <p><section>, <title>; See <a class="xref" href="documenting.html#boostbook.sectioning" title="Sectioning in BoostBook">the section called “Sectioning in BoostBook”</a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><p><i>, <em></p></td> <td align="left"><p><emphasis></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><p><b></p></td> <td align="left"><p><emphasis role="bold"></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><p><ol></p></td> <td align="left"><p><orderedlist></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><p><ul></p></td> <td align="left"><p><itemizedlist></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><p><li></p></td> <td align="left"><p><listitem></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><p><pre></p></td> <td align="left"><p><programlisting></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><p><code></p></td> <td align="left"><p><computeroutput>,<code></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><p><p></p></td> <td align="left"><p><para>, <simpara></p></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><p><a></p></td> <td align="left"> <p><xref>, <link>, <ulink>;, See <a class="xref" href="together.html#boostbook.linking" title="Linking in BoostBook">the section called “Linking in BoostBook”</a></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left"><p><table>, <tr>, <th>, <td></p></td> <td align="left"><p><table>, <informaltable>, <tgroup>, <thead>, <tfoot>, <tbody>, <row>, <entry>, <entrytbl>; BoostBook tables are equivalent to DocBook tables, for which there is a good <a href="http://opensource.bureau-cornavin.com/crash-course/en/tables.html" target="_top">tutorial here</a></p></td> </tr> </tbody> </table></div> </div> <br class="table-break"> </div> <div class="section"> <div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"> <a name="boostbook.sectioning"></a>Sectioning in BoostBook</h3></div></div></div> <p>"Sectioning" refers to organization of a document into separate sections, each with a title, some text, and possibly subsections. Each section is described in BoostBook via a <section> element. An introduction section may look like this:</p> <pre class="programlisting"> <section id="any.intro"> <title>Introduction</title> <para>Introduction to a library...</para> <section> <title>A Subsection</title> <para>Subsection information...</para> </section> </section> </pre> <p>The <section> element contains all information that should logically be grouped within that section. The title of the section is placed within the <title> element, and any paragraphs, programs, lists, tables, or subsections can occur within the section. The <code class="computeroutput">id</code> attribute of the <section> element gives a unique ID to each section, so that it may later be identified for linking. It is suggested that all IDs start with the short name of a library followed by a period, so that IDs do not conflict between libraries.</p> </div> </div> <table xmlns:rev="http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~gregod/boost/tools/doc/revision" width="100%"><tr> <td align="left"></td> <td align="right"><div class="copyright-footer">Copyright © 2003-2005 Douglas Gregor<p>Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt" target="_top">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>). </p> </div></td> </tr></table> <hr> <div class="spirit-nav"> <a accesskey="p" href="getting/started.html"><img src="../../../doc/src/images/prev.png" alt="Prev"></a><a accesskey="u" href="../boostbook.html"><img src="../../../doc/src/images/up.png" alt="Up"></a><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html"><img src="../../../doc/src/images/home.png" alt="Home"></a><a accesskey="n" href="together.html"><img src="../../../doc/src/images/next.png" alt="Next"></a> </div> </body> </html>