# `lgtdoc`

This is the default Logtalk documenting tool for generating API documentation for applications and Logtalk itself. It uses the structural reflection API to extract and output in XML format relevant documentation about a source file, a library or directory of source files, or all loaded source files. The tool predicates accept several options for generating the XML files, including the output directory.

The `lgtdoc/xml` directory contains 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 and made available in the system path by default. See also the `lgtdoc/xml/NOTES.md` for details, including required third-party software.

## API documentation

This tool API documentation is available at:

../../docs/library_index.html#lgtdoc

## Loading

This tool can be loaded using the query:

    | ?- logtalk_load(lgtdoc(loader)).

## Testing

To test this tool, load the `tester.lgt` file:

    | ?- logtalk_load(lgtdoc(tester)).

## Documenting source code

For information on documenting your source code, notably on documenting directives, consult the documenting section of the User Manual:

../../manuals/userman/documenting.html

Extracting documenting information from your source code using 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. Note that 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. But usually all documenting files are collected for both the application and the libraries it uses ar collected in a common directory so that all documentation links resolved properly. The `lgtdoc` predicates can take a list of options to customize the generated XML documenting files. See the remarks section in the lgtdocp protocol documentation for details on the available options.

After generating the XML documenting files, these can be easily converted into final formats using the provided scripts. For example, assuming that we want to generate HTML documentation:

    $ cd xml_docs
    $ lgt2html -t "My app"

To generate the documentation in Sphinx format instead (as used by Logtalk itself for its APIs):

    $ cd xml_docs
    $ lgt2rst -s -- -q -p "Application name" -a "Author name" -v "Version X.YZ.P"
    $ make html

In this case, the generated documentation will be in the `xml_docs/_build/html/` directory. See the scripts man pages or call them using the `-h` option to learn more about their supported options.

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 with the `documentation` target.