Embedded Documentation

So you've written a masterpiece, a class in a class of its own, and you'd like to share it with the world. But, being a responsible developer, you feel the need to document your creation. What do you do? The simplest solution is to use Ruby's built-in documentation format, RD, and rdtool, a Ruby utility suite that converts this documentation into a variety of output formats.

rdtool scans a file for =begin and =end pairs, and extracts the text between them all. This text is assumed to be documentation in RD format. The text is then processed according to a simple set of rules:

• Lines of text flush to the left margin are converted to paragraphs.
• Lines starting with one to four equals signs are headings. “=” is a first-level heading, “==” a second-level heading, and so on. “+” and “++” can be used to signal fifth- and sixth-level headings if you really want to go that deep.
  = Top Level Heading == Second Level Heading ...
• Lines in which the first nonspace is an asterisk indicate the beginnings of bullet lists. Continuation lines for each bullet item should line up with the text on the first line. Lists may be nested.
  This is normal text * start of a multiline bullet item * and another * nested item * second nested * third item at top level
• Lines where the first nonspace characters are digits between parentheses indicate numbered lists. The actual digits used are ignored. Again, lists may be nested.
  (1) A numbered item * subitem in a bulleted list * subitem (2) Second numbered item (9) This will actually be labeled '3.'
• Lines starting with a colon indicate labeled lists. The text on the colon line is the label. The immediately following text (which may not be indented less than the label) is the descriptive text. Again, each type of list may be nested.
  : red when the light is red, you must stop : amber the amber light means that things are about to change. Either: * step on the gas, or * slam on the brakes : green green means GO
• Lines starting with three minus signs are a special kind of labeled list, when the labels are method names and signatures. The source in Figure A.1 shows a handful of these in action.

Indented text that isn't part of a list is set verbatim (such as the stuff under “Synopsis” in Figures A.1 and A.2).

Inline Formatting

Within blocks of text and headings, you can use special inline sequences to control text formatting. All sequences are nested within a set of double parentheses.

Cross References

The content of headings, the labels of labeled lists, and the names of methods are automatically made into potential cross reference targets. You make links to these targets from elsewhere in the document by citing their contents in the ((<...>)) construct.

If a reference starts with “URL:”, rdtool attempts to format it as an external hyperlink.

The reference ((<display part|label>)) generates a link to label but places the text “display part” in the output document. This is used in the description section of the example in Figure A.1 to generate references to the method names:

This construct displays the word “new” in code font but uses it as a hyperlink to the method Tempfile.new.

Method Names

rdtool makes certain assumptions about the format of method names. Class or module methods should appear as Class.method, instance methods as Class#method, and class or module constants as Class::Const.

Including Other Files

The contents of filename will be inserted wherever the document contains

If the file is specified with an .rd or .rb extension, it will be interpreted as RD documentation.

If the filename has no extension, rdtool will look for a file with an extension that matches the type of output being produced (.html for HTML files, .man for man files, and so on) and interpolate that file's contents in the output stream. Thus, a line such as:

could be used to add an output-dependent header to a document.

Using rdtool

RD documentation can be included directly in a Ruby source program or written into a separate file (which by convention will have the extension .rd). These files are processed using the rd2 command to produce appropriately formatted output.

Some common options include:

Mandatory Disclaimer

As we are writingthis, RD and rdtool are undergoing continuous development. It is likely that some of the details we give here will be out of date (or just plain wrong) by the time you read this.

Included with therdtool distribution is the file README.rd. We suggest you do so, as it will give you the current scoop on producing Ruby documentation.