| Re: [Object IDL] self-documenting objects ... [message #12385] |
Fri, 31 July 1998 00:00  |
David Foster
Messages: 341 Registered: January 1996
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Senior Member |
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dEdmundson@Bigfoot.com wrote:
>
> I have created a number of potentially useful objects that I wish
> to share with others. Of course I have documented the code and
> written a nice comment header but it would be nice to access help
> online. Thus, I have adopted the convention of coding a "help"
> method procedure for every object I write, viz.
>
> myobj = obj_new('myobject')
> myobj -> help
>
> Rather than having to duplicate documentation in this method
> *and* the code header, can I not simply display the source
> header to the user? This approach has the benefit of encouraging
> the IDL programmer to write well-documented code headers.
> Comments on this convention?
<snip>
I don't see any reason why you couldn't extract the header
from the source file and display it. Here is another possiblility...
I have been lamblasted (sp?) for this in the past, but I have
decided to write separate .doc documentation files for my routines.
I have written a widget program called LHELP that allows you to
view these files, perform text searches within the current file, and
to view .pro files as well. I have found it to be quite useful
and convenient.
If your object-method approach doesn't pan out you can download
LHELP from: ftp://bial8.ucsd.edu pub/software/idl/software .
Good luck!
Dave
--
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David S. Foster Univ. of California, San Diego
Programmer/Analyst Brain Image Analysis Laboratory
foster@bial1.ucsd.edu Department of Psychiatry
(619) 622-5892 8950 Via La Jolla Drive, Suite 2240
La Jolla, CA 92037
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