Plans for generating API documentation for languages using introspection

This week (hackfest at Desktop Summit 2011)

• Write our own documentation generator that inputs the GIR and outputs docbook

  • We are basing it on the patch in bug #625494: Add DocBook Generator

  • Essentially rewriting gtk-doc
  • The hard work is already done by giscanner and the data is in the GIR
  • We can use giscanner libraries to parse the GIR and lookup type info without much effort
• Provide hooks in our new generator to transform the API to language-specific type names and calling conventions.

Longer term

• Provide a way for other languages to have their own hooks to transform the API

  • Probably via external binary, so PHP, Ruby, Vala or JavaScript people can write their hooks in PHP, Ruby, Vala and Javascript respectively.

Long term

• Handle all the corner cases and bring g-ir-doctool to parity with gtk-doc.
  • Currently there are many formatting corner cases.
  • g-ir-doctool has no plans to integrate well with hand written documentation (as gtk-doc currently does with all the hand written chapters in gtk+)
• g-ir-doctool would like to be a simpler tool with only one input: the GIR file for any library