From: Sean O'Dell <sean@...>
Date: 2002-02-24T12:22:01+09:00
Subject: Re: rdoc/xml questions

"Dave Thomas" <Dave@PragmaticProgrammer.com> wrote in message
news:m2664o3jkw.fsf@zip.local.thomases.com...
>
> I'm wondering about having rdoc generate xml output, and have a couple
> of questions.
>
> 1. Given the Ruby source
>
>        # comment 1
>        class A
>           # comment 2
>           class B
>           end
>        end
>
>    how should the corresponding XML be generated in terms of
>    nesting. Logically, you might want to see
>
>       <class name="A">
>          <class name="A::B">
>            <description>
>              comment 2
>            </description>
>          </class>
>          <description>
>            comment 1
>          </description>
>        </class>

I do things my own way, so this may not make sense in terms of some of the
tools other people use.  I tend to use xpath methods, with the occassional
iteration at certain points in an XML document.

The relationship is "class B inside class A."  To me, the most logical, most
navigable way to express this is:

<a type="class">
    <description type="comment">comment</description>
    <b type="class">
        <description type="comment">comment</description>
    </b>
</a>

So you can then say things like:

a/description = "this is the description for class a"

and:

a/b/description = "this is the description for class b, which is nested
inside class a"

    Sean