FPDoc Editor

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Template:LazDoc

Introduction

FPDoc is the Free Pascal documentation tool to create help files. Lazarus provides two editors to create/update FPDoc source code documentation. One simple and integrated called FPDoc Editor, which is described on this page, and one complete editor called LazDE.

About FPDoc see here: Free Pascal documentation tool manual.

The big brother of the FPDoc Editor is lazde the lazarus documentation editor. It is a standalone application which can be found in ($LazDir)/doceditor/lazde.lpi, and needs to be compiled using the IDE then runs outside the IDE.

LazDE - Lazarus Documentation Editor

Where is the FPDoc Editor?

The FPDoc Editor is integrated in the Lazarus IDE. It can be found under the View menu.

Usage

Using FPDoc Editor is very simple.

1. Open the FPDoc Editor. You can find it under the menu View.

2. Place and move the cursor. After placing the cursor on the source editor, you will notice that the caption of the FPDoc Editor form changes. The caption shows the source element selected and the filename of the documentation file. By selecting the appropriate page in the editor you can edit a specific documentation tag. Of course it is also possible to use it only as a viewer.

3. Click on the create help button. If you have not yet setup the fpdoc search paths, the IDE will ask where to store the fpdoc files. For projects you will normally use a subdirectory 'docs'.

4. Write a short description.

5. Click on the save button to the left or go to the next item. The editor will save it automatically.

Future plans

The todo list currently contains the following items, in no particular order:

  • Write a help editor for topics.
  • Create nicer html output for the hint windows.

Done

  • Extend the link editor to show packages and identifiers
  • Add documentation tags "example" to FPDoc Editor
  • Add documentation tags "topic" to FPDoc Editor
  • Make FPDoc Editor create new elements in documentation
  • Make FPDoc Editor create new documentation files
  • Adding a small toolbar makes it possible to use the available markeup tags
  • Make FPDoc Editor work on keydown in source code editor
  • Add FPDoc Editor to IDE settings (showing and position in IDE)
  • Make it work for fpc sources (rtl files already exist)
  • Add settings to environment menu
  • Make it work on project files also
  • Propose to expand documentation tags with: "todo" and "notes" (no need for that, as there are alternatives)
  • Reduce overhead even further
  • All source elements are interpreted by FPDoc Editor using codetools
  • Find inherited entries. For example TControl.Align of TButton.Align
  • Optimization: inherited Entries are parsed on idle
  • Optimization: xml files are cached, and only parsed once or if they changed on disk
  • Add a HTML viewer. This is available by installing the turbopoweriprodsgn package