Generating Documentation in D6 (Community): Printing a Class Specification

Forum,

How do I document my application in D6 (Community)?  I would like to
simply print a class specification and output other types of reports
about my application.  Does D6 support this feature?

More generally speaking, where is printer device support (i.e. managing
the print queue, enumerating printers, etc.)?  All I can find is
PrinterCanvas.

And even more generally speaking, what are developers doing for
reporting and report design in general in data-centric applications?
Has anyone wrapped Crystal Reports (Business Objects), PDF, or MS
Office XML?

Thank you.

Eric

Eric,

> More generally speaking, where is printer device support (i.e. managing
> the print queue, enumerating printers, etc.)?  All I can find is
> PrinterCanvas.

One of my goodies (IDB Printer) adds Printing support to a base Dolphin
image (under XP or Win2K) and another (IDB IDE Printer) integrates printing
into the system browsers - adds a Print/Page Setup/Print Preview option to
various File menus.  This is all done with wrappers round the Windows
RichEdit control and is text only, I haven't investigated printing images.

I used to have another goody that printed a nicely formatted document which
included a classes comment, definition and methods.  To do this it used the
rtf code formatting available in the pre D6 image but that disappeared in D6
with the introduction of the Scintilla editor.  The IDB IDE Printer goodie
still adds a "Print class" option that emits a usable class definition
document but which can't be manually formatted as easily.

I did also have a play at a very simple report writer (IDB Report) that made
it a bit easier to generate and print RichText documents programatically.  I
was never very happy with it and it hasn't really gone anywhere.

You can find my goodies at the following address.  The documentation is
virtually non-existant (i.e. coming soon!) so feel free to ask here or mail
me with questions.

http://www.idb.me.uk

> And even more generally speaking, what are developers doing for
> reporting and report design in general in data-centric applications?
> Has anyone wrapped Crystal Reports (Business Objects), PDF, or MS
> Office XML?

A quick look through the newsgroup archive (also available from my web site)
shows that there was a wrapper for Crystal Reports available for Dolphin 5,
I don't know what the current situation is with that though.

--
Ian

Use the Reply-To address to contact me (limited validity).
Mail sent to the From address is ignored.

Ian,

Thank you for your reply.

I downloaded the goodies from your website,  and installed all packages
pertaining to printing and reporting.  I've had a chance to test only
the printing of a class specification, and it works great!  Now I can
"see" my application, if that makes any sense.  I took note of the
goodies you offer about a week ago, but since at that time I wasn't
specifically addressing printing issues, I suppose I overlooked the
printing packages.  I look forward to delving into the rest of the
goodies.

>>
I did also have a play at a very simple report writer (IDB Report) that
made
it a bit easier to generate and print RichText documents
programatically.  I
was never very happy with it and it hasn't really gone anywhere.
>>

RichText is problematic at best.  I've worked with the RichText Control
in a variety of contexts, and never really been happy myself.  An
approach involving the output of HTML, PDF, and/or XML might prove more
fruitful.

It might be too early for me to make recommendations to Object Arts
(I'm only at the proof-of-concept stage with the Community Edition),
but I would say that the feature of being able to emit documentation
for an application (perhaps based on its package contents) should be
considered essential.  Output selection should include a nice,
navigable HTML, or a PDF, at a minimum.

Thanks again, and more particularly for the goodies.

Eric