# `lgtdoc`

This folder provides the default Logtalk documenting tool, which is focused on generating API documentation for applications.

This documenting tool uses Logtalk’s structural reflection support to extract and output in XML format relevant documentation about a source code file, a library or directory of source files, or all loaded source files. The tool predicates allows you to set several options for the XML files, including the output directory.

The `lgtdoc/xml` directory includes several ready to use scripts for converting the XML documenting files into final formats including (X)HTML, PDF, Markdown, and reStructuredText (for use with Sphinx), or plain text files. The scripts are described in their `man` pages. See also the `lgtdoc/xml/NOTES.md` for details.

For information on documenting your source code, consult the documenting section of the User Manual:

manuals/userman/documenting.html

## API documentation

To consult this tool API documentation, open in a web browser the link:

docs/library_index.html#lgtdoc

## Loading

This tool can be loaded using the query:

    | ?- logtalk_load(lgtdoc(loader)).

## Documenting source code

Documenting Logtalk source code (with this tool) requires compiling the source files using the `source_data(on)` compiler flag. For example:

    | ?- logtalk_load(source_file, [source_data(on)]).

Usually, this flag is set for all application source files in the corresponding loader file. In alternative, you may also turn on the `source_data` flag globally by typing:

    | ?- set_logtalk_flag(source_data, on).

The tool API allows generating documentation for libraries, directories, and files, complemented with library, directory, entity, and predicate indexes. The source files to be documented must be loaded prior to using this tool predicates to generate the documentation.

## Generating documentation

For a simple application, assuming a library alias is defined for it (e.g. `my_app`), and at the top-level interpreter, we can generate the application documentation by typing:

    | ?- {my_app(loader)}.
    ...

    | ?- {lgtdoc(loader)}.
    ...

    | ?- lgtdoc::library(my_app).
    ...

By default, the documenting XML files are created in a `./xml_docs` directory in the application directory. For example, assuming that we want to generate HTML documentation:

    $ cd xml_docs
    $ lgt2html -t "My app"

For more complex applications, you can use the `doclet` tool to define a doclet to automate all the steps required to generate documentation. The doclet message that triggers the process can also be sent automatically when the `make` tool is used.

## Other notes

All source files are formatted using tabs (the recommended setting is a tab width equivalent to 4 spaces).