Re: [boost] Review request: auto-index tool

Subject: Re: [boost] Review request: auto-index tool
From: Hartmut Kaiser (hartmut.kaiser_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-01-21 11:29:14

> On 1/21/2011 7:13 AM, John Maddock wrote:
> > I'm not sure if we're doing reviews of tools - we haven't in the past
> > - but I thought it would be good to get feedback anyway...
> >
> > Auto-index is a tool for semi-automating the task of adding an index
> > to quickbook/boostbook/doxygen/docbook documentation. Auto-index acts
> > at the docbook level to scan for terms in a concordance script-file,
> > but can also scan headers for classes, typedefs, functions and macros
> > to index and a lot more besides. Auto-index supports multiple indexes
> > (for example class, function, macro and typedef indexes out of the
> > box), and can either delegate the actual index formatting to the XSL
> > stylesheets, or produce the index itself (faster, also better looking
> for HTML indexes).
> >
> > Code is in the sandbox under tools/auto_index, documentation can be
> > viewed online at:
> > http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/tools/auto_index/doc/html/index
> > .html
> >
> > Currently the math, type_traits and spirit libraries are using this
> > tool in trunk to produce indexes - take a look at those libraries to
> > see the sort of indexes produced.
> 
> I am for this review also. I would like to use indexing in my libraries in
> the sandbox but have not done it because it would require the end-user to
> download your library in order to regenerate the docs. If auto-index were
> part of Boost it would be easier for potential Boost libraries in the
> sandbox to use it.

Your users don't need to have auto_index installed. You can have a jamfile
which looks at the command line options bjam was invoked with and use
auto_index only if explicitly requested (i.e. bjam --enable-index). See the
spirit docs how it can be solved. 

Regards Hartmut
---------------
http://boost-spirit.com