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Posted to user@ant.apache.org by ni...@westpac.co.nz on 2006/03/02 23:55:47 UTC

Generating PDF documentation .

Hi ,
        Would like to know , how to generate the PDF documentation similar 
to what is found in ANT docs (appendix_e.pdf) .

Nimish


RE: Generating PDF documentation .

Posted by bill/wilandra <bi...@wilandra.com>.
Has anyone considered converting the docs to Forrest? Forrest is XML based
and uses Ant for its process control. Possibly coupling Forrest with
AntDoclet will yield both the web site and the PDF that is desired. Of
course, this does not preclude the important step that Daniel mentioned "You
have to add meaningful information into your sources first", but, it may
help some.

I just started using Forrest for some of my web site work. You do not have
to convert all files to XML in the first pass. Forrest takes existing HTML
files for content as well as XML files. It will also pull in files from
whatever source you specify (I think, I have not tried this). I do link to
JavaDoc generated files from the XML files and that works. Forrest relies on
a sitemap file that maps virtual file names to real file names. Each page in
the documentation can have a PDF button on it that links to the PDF version
of the page. An example of a site generated with Forrest is
http://g11ntoolkit.sourceforge.net. One thing I am not excited about is how
long it has been taking the site to come up in my browser. I don't know the
cause of the slow down yet but it started happening when I switched to
Forrest. I am sure it is something that can be solved with just a SMOP.

Documentation for Forrest is located at http://forrest.apache.org/docs_0_70.

Bill 

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Lindner [mailto:daniel.lindner@abas.de] 
Sent: Friday, March 03, 2006 7:25 AM
To: Ant Users List
Subject: Re: Generating PDF documentation .

Steve Loughran wrote:

> nimish_chourey@westpac.co.nz wrote:
> 
>> Hi ,
>>         Would like to know , how to generate the PDF documentation 
>> similar to what is found in ANT docs (appendix_e.pdf) .

The second step in this process, extracting information from the task
sources, can be done with the AntDoclet tool:
http://antdoclet.neuroning.com/
You have to add meaningful information into your sources first, though.

The AntDoclet comes with XSL-Skripts to convert to HTML. Perhaps its
possible to add another conversion step from HTML to PDF or convert directly
into PDF.

I'm very happy with my generated HTML-Taskdoc. Consider asking Fernando (the
AntDoclet author) for the most current version. :)

Sincerely,
Daniel

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Re: Generating PDF documentation .

Posted by Daniel Lindner <da...@abas.de>.
Steve Loughran wrote:

> nimish_chourey@westpac.co.nz wrote:
> 
>> Hi ,
>>         Would like to know , how to generate the PDF documentation 
>> similar to what is found in ANT docs (appendix_e.pdf) .

The second step in this process, extracting information from the task 
sources, can be done with the AntDoclet tool:
http://antdoclet.neuroning.com/
You have to add meaningful information into your sources first, though.

The AntDoclet comes with XSL-Skripts to convert to HTML. Perhaps its 
possible to add another conversion step from HTML to PDF or convert 
directly into PDF.

I'm very happy with my generated HTML-Taskdoc. Consider asking Fernando 
(the AntDoclet author) for the most current version. :)

Sincerely,
Daniel

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Re: Generating PDF documentation .

Posted by Steve Loughran <st...@apache.org>.
nimish_chourey@westpac.co.nz wrote:
> Hi ,
>         Would like to know , how to generate the PDF documentation similar 
> to what is found in ANT docs (appendix_e.pdf) .
> 
> Nimish
> 
> 

ahh. Fully automated PDF generation is still on the todo list.

Appendix E is "appendix E" of Java development with Ant, which was done by

-writing the xdoclet based stuff in the sandbox to generate simple 
documentation from the source
-annotating every single file with meaningful descriptions
-generating some intermediate form
-fixing it up by hand in frame maker (which took a professional typesetter)

We want to improve automated doc generation, but nobody has invested the 
effort in setting up the build process or porting all existing docs+ 
examples, which would be a lot of work.

-steve

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