need hint for adabrowse usage

need hint for adabrowse usage

[JPWoodruff]

--  I've been using adabrowse4.0.1 successfully for some time but I
just
--  noticed a fact about the html I'd like help with.

--  I don't know how to collect Ada comments that have empty spaces
--  between them in the way I've formatted these paragraphs.

--  I've been reading the User's Guide - I think I need to know more
--  about "A comment block is any sequence of consecutive Ada 95
comment
--  lines that start with the same prefix."  But what is the
relationship
--  between adjacent comment blocks?

--  U-G has "Description." controls to represent Ada comments, but I'm
--  puzzled why all but one of separate comment blocks disappear from
the
--  html.  Sorry to say html is, (uhm), not exactly my speciality.

--  A specific case in point that I'm unable to process properly is
--  gnat-regpat.ads in the gnat3.15 suite.

John

Re: need hint for adabrowse usage

[Randy Brukardt]

<JPWoodruff@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:c598ef51-35ec-4da1-8b8e-2d3d35704577@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
...
> --  I don't know how to collect Ada comments that have empty spaces
> --  between them in the way I've formatted these paragraphs.

HTML ignores all strings of spaces -- they all display as a single space.
That's a basic feature of HTML and there isn't much AdaBrowse or any other
tool can do about it. (And I've tried for the ARM formatter!!)

If you're using spaces to get the effect of tabs, it simply isn't possible
in HTML. There are no tabs; the only way to get columnar layout is to format
as a table or to format everything in fixed fonts -- the former is very
difficult to do with unstructured source, and the latter is horribly ugly.

Net-net, you're bumping into limitations of HTML; it doesn't work the same
as plain text.

                                 Randy.

Re: need hint for adabrowse usage

[JPWoodruff]

On Dec 18, 3:48 pm, "Randy Brukardt" <ra...@rrsoftware.com> wrote:
> <JPWoodr...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:c598ef51-35ec-4da1-8b8e-2d3d35704577@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> ...
>
> > --  I don't know how to collect Ada comments that have empty spaces
> > --  between them in the way I've formatted these paragraphs.
>
> HTML ignores all strings of spaces -- they all display as a single space.
> That's a basic feature of HTML and there isn't much AdaBrowse or any other
> tool can do about it. (And I've tried for the ARM formatter!!)
>
> If you're using spaces to get the effect of tabs, it simply isn't possible



I guess I was pretty unclear about my question.  Here's try2:

The Ada source file (g-regpat.ads for example) has comment blocks with
a blank line separating each.

But when I run adabrowse, the output file -.html has only one of the
comment blocks.  Adabrowse did not write the others.

So I probably need the correct incantation for Adabrowse's -.cfg
file.  Anybody got a clue for me?

John

Re: need hint for adabrowse usage

[Georg Bauhaus]

On Tue, 2007-12-18 at 16:48 -0600, Randy Brukardt wrote:
> <JPWoodruff@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:c598ef51-35ec-4da1-8b8e-2d3d35704577@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> ...
> > --  I don't know how to collect Ada comments that have empty spaces
> > --  between them in the way I've formatted these paragraphs.

> If you're using spaces to get the effect of tabs, it simply isn't possible
> in HTML. There are no tabs; the only way to get columnar layout is to format
> as a table or to format everything in fixed fonts -- the former is very
> difficult to do with unstructured source, and the latter is horribly ugly.

I beg to differ,

http://home.arcor.de/bauhaus/Tools/ASnip/sample-rm.html
and
http://home.arcor.de/bauhaus/Tools/ASnip/sample-antiq.html

:)

Re: need hint for adabrowse usage

[Randy Brukardt]

"Georg Bauhaus" <rm.tsoh+bauhaus@maps.futureapps.de> wrote in message
news:1198019081.6939.1.camel@K72...
>
> On Tue, 2007-12-18 at 16:48 -0600, Randy Brukardt wrote:
> > <JPWoodruff@gmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:c598ef51-35ec-4da1-8b8e-2d3d35704577@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> > ...
> > > --  I don't know how to collect Ada comments that have empty spaces
> > > --  between them in the way I've formatted these paragraphs.
>
> > If you're using spaces to get the effect of tabs, it simply isn't
possible
> > in HTML. There are no tabs; the only way to get columnar layout is to
format
> > as a table or to format everything in fixed fonts -- the former is very
> > difficult to do with unstructured source, and the latter is horribly
ugly.
>
> I beg to differ,
>
> http://home.arcor.de/bauhaus/Tools/ASnip/sample-rm.html
> and
> http://home.arcor.de/bauhaus/Tools/ASnip/sample-antiq.html
>
> :)

That's the ugly fixed font solution that I was talking about. It's probably
the best that can be done avoiding tables, but for a lot of purposes
(program code is one of the exceptions) it isn't very good. For instance,
using it means that the width of the text is fixed, which means that the
ability of the HTML to adjust to different screen sizes is lost.

If you want text to look like:
    <term>  <lengthy definition>
    <term>  <another lengthy definition>
That is very hard to do in a portable manner. I've fought browser issues and
tooling issues a lot in getting that sort of thing to look good -- but it is
best to avoid it.

                           Randy.

Re: need hint for adabrowse usage

[Randy Brukardt]

"Georg Bauhaus" <rm.tsoh+bauhaus@maps.futureapps.de> wrote in message
news:1198019081.6939.1.camel@K72...
>
> On Tue, 2007-12-18 at 16:48 -0600, Randy Brukardt wrote:
> > <JPWoodruff@gmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:c598ef51-35ec-4da1-8b8e-2d3d35704577@e6g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> > ...
> > > --  I don't know how to collect Ada comments that have empty spaces
> > > --  between them in the way I've formatted these paragraphs.
>
> > If you're using spaces to get the effect of tabs, it simply isn't
possible
> > in HTML. There are no tabs; the only way to get columnar layout is to
format
> > as a table or to format everything in fixed fonts -- the former is very
> > difficult to do with unstructured source, and the latter is horribly
ugly.
>
> I beg to differ,
>
> http://home.arcor.de/bauhaus/Tools/ASnip/sample-rm.html
> and
> http://home.arcor.de/bauhaus/Tools/ASnip/sample-antiq.html
>
> :)

That's the ugly fixed font solution that I was talking about. It's probably
the best that can be done avoiding tables, but for a lot of purposes
(program code is one of the exceptions) it isn't very good. For instance,
using it means that the width of the text is fixed, which means that the
ability of the HTML to adjust to different screen sizes is lost.

If you want text to look like:
    <term>  <lengthy definition>
    <term>  <another lengthy definition>
That is very hard to do in a portable manner. I've fought browser issues and
tooling issues a lot in getting that sort of thing to look good -- but it is
best to avoid it.

                           Randy.