``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 <https://logtalk.org/manuals/userman/documenting.html>`__

API documentation
-----------------

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

`docs/library_index.html#lgtdoc <https://logtalk.org/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 indented using tabs (a common setting is a tab
width equivalent to 4 spaces).
