Date:	Mon, 23 Feb 1998 06:16:53 +0000 (GMT)
From:	George Foot <george DOT foot AT merton DOT oxford DOT ac DOT uk>
To:	Nate Eldredge <eldredge AT ap DOT net>
cc:	djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: Suggestion: Portability section for libc docs
In-Reply-To:	<199802230250.SAA20960@adit.ap.net>
Message-ID:	<Pine.OSF.3.95.980223060123.517C-100000@sable.ox.ac.uk>
MIME-Version:	1.0

On Sun, 22 Feb 1998, Nate Eldredge wrote:

> At 05:52  2/13/1998 -0500, DJ Delorie wrote:
> >Functionality would have to be added.  mkdoc currently only knows
> >about @node lines, and automatically regenerates the next/prev links.
> Okay, who's going to do that? I suspect I would not be the best person,
> since I know almost no C++. 

mkdoc doesn't use any advanced C++ -- just member functions in a struct,
AFAICS.  I presume that it's not intended to implement a versatile macro
system; just enough to handle the portability information. In this case
I'd revise the suggestion to something like this:

: @subheading Portability
: 
: @portability_start
: 
: @portable_to ANSI
: 
: @portable_to DOS
: @begin_portability_note
: 
: Borland doesn't have this function; MS prototypes it in @code(foo.h).
: 
: @end_portability_note
: 
: @portable_to Unix
: 
: @portability_end

Any system not mentioned does not support the function.  This is more
versatile than the previous way because it allows us to completely change
the structure of the information.  mkdoc would read in all the
information, and then do the formatting when it hits the @portability_end,
for example putting in the reference to the DOS note, formatting it into
the table, adding `No' entries for the systems that don't have the
function, etc. 

This relies on us adding specific code to mkdoc to deal with the
portability information, rather than generic macro expansion code.  I
personally think this is appropriate; mkdoc is a specialist utility.

This functionality should be fairly simple to add; I'd be happy to do it
if nobody else will.

-- 
george DOT foot AT merton DOT oxford DOT ac DOT uk

ko tavla fo la lojban

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