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1<html>
2<head>
3<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
4<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../boost.css">
5<title>Writing Documentation for Boost - HTML Design</title>
6</head>
7<body link="#0000ff" vlink="#800080">
8<table border="0" cellpadding="7" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary=
9    "header">
10  <tr> 
11    <td valign="top" width="300"> 
12      <h3><a href="index.html"><img height="86" width="277" alt="C++ Boost" src="../../boost.png" border="0"></a></h3>
13    </td>
14    <td valign="top"> 
15      <h1 align="center">Writing Documentation for Boost</h1>
16      <h2 align="center">HTML Design</h2>
17    </td>
18  </tr>
19</table>
20<hr>
21<dl class="page-index"> 
22  <dt><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></dt>
23  <dt><a href="#common-pages">Common Pages Included in HTML Documentation</a></dt>
24  <dl class="page-index"> 
25    <dt><a href="#index-page">Index</a></dt>
26    <dt><a href="#overview-page">Overview</a></dt>
27    <dt><a href="#definitions-page">Definitions</a></dt>
28    <dt><a href="#rationale-page">Rationale</a></dt>
29    <dt><a href="#configuration-page">Configuration Information</a></dt>
30    <dt><a href="#faq-page">Frequently Asked Questions</a></dt>
31    <dt><a href="#bibliography-page">Bibliography</a></dt>
32    <dt><a href="#acknowledgements-page">Acknowledgment</a></dt>
33    <dt><a href="#header-page">Header Reference</a></dt>
34  </dl>
35  <dt><a href="#layout">Layout</a></dt>
36  <dl class="page-index"> 
37    <dt><a href="#page-banner">Page Banner</a></dt>
38    <dt><a href="#page-index">Page Index</a></dt>
39    <dt><a href="#content">Documentation Content</a></dt>
40    <dl class="page-index"> 
41      <dt><a href="#doc-footnotes">Footnotes</a></dt>
42    </dl>
43    <dt><a href="#revision-info">Revision Information</a></dt>
44    <dt><a href="#copyright">Copyright Information</a></dt>
45  </dl>
46  <dt><a href="#format">Format</a></dt>
47  <dl class="page-index"> 
48    <dt><a href="#style-sheets">Cascading Style Sheets</a></dt>
49    <dl class="page-index"> 
50      <dt><a href="#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style Sheet</a></dt>
51    </dl>
52  </dl>
53  <dt><a href="#templates">Templates</a></dt>
54  <dl class="page-index"> 
55    <dt><a href="#index-template">Index Page Template</a></dt>
56    <dt><a href="#overview-template">Overview Page Template</a></dt>
57    <dt><a href="#definitions-template">Definitions Page Template</a></dt>
58    <dt><a href="#rationale-template">Rationale Page Template</a></dt>
59    <dt><a href="#configuration-template">Configuration Page Template</a></dt>
60    <dt><a href="#faq-template">FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page Template</a></dt>
61    <dt><a href="#bibliography-template">Bibliography Page Template</a></dt>
62    <dt><a href="#acknowledgements-template">Acknowledgments Page Template</a></dt>
63    <dt><a href="#header-template">Header Page Template</a></dt>
64  </dl>
65</dl>
66<h2><a name="introduction"></a>Introduction</h2>
67<p>Boost places no requirements on the design of HTML documentation for library
68  submitters. If you are submitting a library for which documentation already
69  exists in either HTML or in a form easily converted to HTML then there is no
70  need for you to read this document. However, if you have not yet written the
71  documentation, or if you expect to have to translate documentation written in
72  a format not easily convertible to HTML then this document can give you a lot
73  of information on how to go about writing documentation in HTML.</p>
74<p>In several places this document assumes you're writing the documentation to
75  conform to the structure described in the <a href="structure.html">Documentation
76  Structure</a> document. There is no requirement that your documentation content
77  follow these guidelines, but they provide an effective way to communicate technical
78  specifications for a library in a terse yet precise manner that's familiar to
79  many Boost users.</p>
80<p>This document also contains links to <a href="#templates">HTML template files</a> 
81  that can be used to rapidly develop documentation for a library submission.
82  These templates follow the guidelines presented here and in the <a href="structure.html">Documentation
83  Structure</a> document.</p>
84<h2><a name="common-pages"></a>Common Pages Included in HTML Documentation</h2>
85<p>Most HTML documentation projects will contain some common pages. General guidelines
86  for these common pages are provided below.</p>
87<h3><a name="index-page"></a>Index</h3>
88<p>The index page is the first page presented to a user when he browses the documentation.
89  Generally this page should not contain any actual content, but instead contains
90  a list of links to specific content. At a minimum this list should contain a
91  link to every HTML page contained in the documentation. Optionally, sub-lists
92  may be provided for individual pages linking to specific subjects within the
93  page. These sub-lists should form a &quot;tree&quot; hierarchy based on the
94  level of heading tag used for the specific subject. Inclusion of such sub-lists
95  for every page can make the index rather lengthy, and since each page should
96  include its own <a href="#page-index">Page Index</a>, it may make the navigation
97  of the documentation easier if such sub-lists are avoided. However, there is
98  one exception to this guideline: reference documentation should contain a link
99  to every header file in the library and a sub-list with a link to every macro,
100  value, type, class, function and object (see <a href="structure.html">Documentation
101  Structure</a>) found in the header. Users aren't always sure what header file
102  any of these may be contained in, so this structure in the index allows for
103  easy navigation of the reference documentation.</p>
104<p>The index list should generally be constructed using an HTML &quot;definition
105  list&quot; (&lt;dl&gt; and &lt;dt&gt; tags). A definition list has no bullets
106  or ordered specifications and produces a cleaner layout then an unordered list
107  (&lt;ul&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags) or an ordered list (&lt;ol&gt; and &lt;li&gt; 
108  tags). If you choose to use the common <a href="#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style
109  Sheet</a> you should add a <code>class="index"</code> attribute/value pair to
110  the &lt;dl&gt; tag.</p>
111<p>An Index page <a href="#index-template">template</a> is provided for use.</p>
112<h3><a name="overview-page"></a>Overview</h3>
113<p>The Overview page is used to introduce the reader to the library. It should
114  give a high-level overview of the purpose of the library and introduce the reader
115  to any concepts they may be unfamiliar with. This may also be an appropriate
116  place for some &quot;light&quot; rationale, though more thorough presentation
117  of any rationale would be better placed in the <a href="#rationale-page">Rational
118  Page</a>.</p>
119<p>Like most content pages, the Overview page should include a <a href="#page-index">Page
120  Index</a>.</p>
121<p>An Overview page <a href="#overview-template">template</a> is provided for
122  use.</p>
123<h3><a name="definitions-page"></a>Definitions</h3>
124<p>The Definitions page is used to provide a list of definitions for terms that
125  a user may be unfamiliar with.</p>
126<p>The definition list should generally be constructed using an HTML &quot;definition
127  list&quot; (&lt;dl&gt; and &lt;DT&gt; tags). A definition list has no bullets
128  or ordered specifications and produces a cleaner layout then an unordered list
129  (&lt;UL&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags) or an ordered list (&lt;ol&gt; and &lt;li&gt; 
130  tags). If you choose to use the common <a href="#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style
131  Sheet</a> you should add a <code>class="definition"</code> attribute/value pair
132  to the &lt;dl&gt; tag.</p>
133<p>Because this page's content should only contain a list of definitions, it should
134  not have a <a href="#page-index">Page Index</a>.</p>
135<p></p>
136<p> A Definitions page <a href="#definitions-template">template</a> is provided
137  for use.</p>
138<h3><a name="rationale-page"></a>Rationale</h3>
139<p>The Rationale page is used to provide lengthy descriptions of the rationale
140  behind the library's design. This information helps users to understand why
141  a library was designed the way it was and may reduce the frequency of a number
142  of frequently asked questions. For a better description of why rationale is
143  important see the <a href="http://www.boost.org/more/lib_guide.htm#Rationale">Rationale
144  rationale</a> in the general submission guidelines.</p>
145<p>Like most content pages, the Rationale page should include a <a href="#page-index">Page
146  Index</a>.</p>
147<p></p>
148<p>A Rationale page <a href="#rationale-template">template</a> is provided for
149  use.</p>
150<h3><a name="configuration-page"></a>Configuration Information</h3>
151<p>The Configuration Information page is used to document configuration macros
152  used by the library. Such macros belong in one of three groups: macros used
153  by library implenters defined in <code>&lt;boost/config.hpp&gt;</code>, macros
154  used by library users to detect platform configuration information and macros
155  defined by library users to configure library behavior.</p>
156<p>Like most content pages, the Overview page should include a <a href="#page-index">Page
157  Index</a>.</p>
158<p></p>
159<p>A Configuration page <a href="#configuration-template">template</a> is provided
160  for use.</p>
161<h3><a name="faq-page"></a>Frequently Asked Questions</h3>
162<p>As a library matures the users will have questions about the usage of the library.
163  Often users will ask the same questions over and over again. Rather than having
164  to deal with answering the question every time it's asked, a Frequently Asked
165  Questions (commonly known as FAQs) page can be used to document the questions
166  and answers. This is such a valuable piece of documentation not only for the
167  users but for the maintainers as well, that a FAQ page should be provided from
168  the outset. If there are no questions that will obviously become a FAQ, the
169  initial page may just indicate that there are no FAQs yet. This empty place
170  holder helps to indicate to the users that you plan to address any FAQs as they
171  occur.</p>
172<p>The <a href="#page-index">Page Index</a> for the FAQ page should contain a
173  list of all the questions contained in the document. The actual question entries
174  should be formatted with the question in a heading tag and the answers in standard
175  paragraph format. This provides a clean presentation that's easy to read.</p>
176<p>A Frequently Asked Questions page <a href="#faq-template">template</a> is provided
177  for use.</p>
178<h3><a name="bibliography-page"></a>Bibliography</h3>
179<p>The Bibliography page is used to document any bibliographical information associated
180  with references made within the documentation to external resources. Parenthetical
181  references are used within the documentation which link to entries in the Bibliography
182  page. Bibliographical entries provide detailed information about the external
183  resource and may contain hyper links to the resource if it's available online.
184  There are several formal styles used for writing bibliographies. You may use
185  what ever style you want, but one of the better styles to consider using can
186  be referenced <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html">here</a>.</p>
187<p>Since the Bibliography page should contain only bibliographical information
188  there is no need for a <a href="#page-index">Page Index</a>.</p>
189<p>A Bibliography page <a href="#bibliography-template">template</a> is provided
190  for use.</p>
191<h3><a name="acknowledgements-page"></a>Acknowledgment</h3>
192<p>The Acknowledgment page is used to give credit where credit is due. When individuals
193  provide input on the design or implementation, or when you make use of someone
194  else's work, you should acknowledge them. This is a courtesy that you'd expect
195  others to extend to you, so you should strive to acknowledge the efforts of
196  everyone else in your own documentation.</p>
197<p>Since the Acknowledgment page should contain only a list of acknowledgment
198  there is no need for a <a href="#page-index">Page Index</a>.</p>
199<p>An Acknowledgments page <a href="#acknowledgements-template">template</a> is
200  provided for use.</p>
201<h3><a name="header-page"></a>Header Reference</h3>
202<p>The Header Reference pages are the most important pages in your documentation.
203  They document all library headers, including all the macros, values, types,
204  classes, functions and objects defined in them. In general it may prove useful
205  to follow the guidelines in <a href="structure.html">Documentation Structure</a> 
206  when writing the content for these pages.</p>
207<p>Like most content pages, the Header Reference pages should include a <a href="#page-index">Page
208  Index</a>.</p>
209<p>A Header Reference page <a href="#header-template">template</a> is provided
210  for use.</p>
211<h2><a name="layout"></a>Layout</h2>
212<p>There are certain page layout concepts that will be used frequently in many
213  of your pages. This section outlines some general guidelines that you can follow
214  when designing each of these layout concepts for your documentation.</p>
215<h3><a name="page-banner"></a>Page Banner</h3>
216<p>The Page Banner is located at the very top of a page and provides quick information
217  about the page contents. This includes the Boost logo, which indicates to the
218  reader that this page is part of the Boost web site, a title for the documentation
219  (generally the library name) and the page title. The Boost logo should hyper
220  link to the Boost home page on the index page and to the index page on all other
221  pages. This allows the user to easily navigate through the Boost web site and
222  through the documentation. The &lt;title&gt; tag for the HTML page should consist
223  of the documentation title and the page title separated by a hyphen.</p>
224<p>The Page Banner should be separated from the rest of the page by the use of
225  an &lt;hr&gt; tag. This helps to clearly separate the actual content from the
226  title information and produces cleaner text.</p>
227<h3><a name="page-index"></a>Page Index</h3>
228<p>The page index is used to quickly navigate to the various sections of the documentation
229  on the page, and when present should be located just below the Page Banner.</p>
230<p>The index list should generally be constructed using an HTML &quot;definition
231  list&quot; (&lt;dl&gt; and &lt;DT&gt; tags). A definition list has no bullets
232  or ordered specifications and produces a cleaner layout then an unordered list
233  (&lt;UL&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags) or an ordered list (&lt;ol&gt; and &lt;li&gt; 
234  tags). If you choose to use the Boost Style Sheet you should add a <code>class="page-index"</code> 
235  attribute/value pair to the &lt;dl&gt; tag.</p>
236<p>Most pages should include a Page Index.</p>
237<h3><a name="content"></a>Documentation Content</h3>
238<p>The page's actual documentation content will be formatted according to the
239  specific needs of individual pages, and should be placed right after the Page
240  Index if present, or after the Page Banner if not. In general the documentation
241  content will take the form of paragraph text contained underneath section headings.</p>
242<h3><a name="doc-footnotes"></a>Footnotes</h3>
243<p>Footnotes may be used within a page's documentation. Within the documentation
244  content a footnote reference should take the form of a footnote number in parentheses
245  (the parentheses make it easier for the reader to click on the hyper link) hyper
246  linking to the actual footnote at the bottom of the page's documentation content.
247  You may either use the &lt;sup&gt; tag to format such footnote numbers, or,
248  preferably, you can use a CSS style class in order to distinguish the number
249  as a footnote instead of as part of the actual text. If you choose to use the
250  common <a href="#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style Sheet</a>, a <code>footnote</code> 
251  class is defined for this purpose.</p>
252<h3><a name="revision-info"></a>Revision Information</h3>
253<p>At the bottom of every page should be some revision information indicating
254  when the page was last revised. This information should be separated from the
255  rest of the page above by an &lt;hr&gt; tag. The following HTML code snippet
256  can be used to track this revision information (this code uses some server components
257  that exist on the Boost web site to automatically track revision dates with
258  out the need for hand editing the date text):</p>
259<pre>&lt;hr&gt;
260&lt;p&gt;Revised
261  &lt;!--webbot bot=&quot;Timestamp&quot; S-Type=&quot;EDITED&quot; S-Format=&quot;%d %B, %Y&quot; startspan --&gt;
262  01 January, 2001
263  &lt;!--webbot bot=&quot;Timestamp&quot; endspan i-checksum=&quot;39359&quot; --&gt;
264&lt;/p&gt;
265</pre>
266<h3><a name="copyright"></a>Copyright Information</h3>
267<p>The very bottom of the page should contain any copyright information that applies
268  to the document.</p>
269<h2><a name="format"></a>Format</h2>
270<p>This section provides general guidelines for formatting documentation using
271  HTML. The description of the various &quot;common pages&quot; gave specific
272  details for formatting specific sections of the documentation, which should
273  override these guidelines.</p>
274<h3><a name="code-format"></a>Code</h3>
275<p>Code within the documentation should be placed within either &lt;code&gt;&lt;/code&gt; 
276  or &lt;pre&gt;&lt;/pre&gt; tags. For code that's placed inline with other text
277  you use &lt;code&gt;&lt;/code&gt; tags, while &lt;pre&gt;&lt;/pre&gt; tags are
278  used for code &quot;blocks&quot;. If a cascading style sheet is used to specify
279  formatting for these tags, a fixed width sans serif font should be used. This
280  insures that the code is easily distinguishable from the rest of the text. It
281  may also be beneficial to set the style for &lt;pre&gt;&lt;/pre&gt; tags to
282  indent the text, to help separate code blocks from other structural HTML blocks.
283  The <a href="#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style Sheet</a> specifies formatting
284  for these tags.</p>
285<p><b>Note:</b> &quot;Code&quot; includes variable names, function names, etc.</p>
286<h3><a name="lists"></a>Lists</h3>
287<p>Lists should be constructed as unordered (&lt;UL&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags),
288  ordered (&lt;ol&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags) or definition (&lt;dl&gt; and &lt;DT&gt; 
289  tags) lists in HTML. You use an unordered list when you need a collection of
290  items that don't have any kind of logical ordering, such as a list of data types
291  that are defined by the library and can be used for a template argument. You
292  use an ordered list when the collection of items must be grouped in a logical
293  ordering, such as when enumerating the steps that an action logically performs.
294  You use a definition list when the list consists of not only items that have
295  no logical ordering, but also contains definitions/descriptions/etc. of the
296  items. A good example of this is the function specifications as described in
297  <a href="structure.html">Documentation Structure</a>.</p>
298<h3><a name="graphics"></a>Graphics</h3>
299<p>Graphics should be used very sparingly, if at all. Graphic images greatly effect
300  the download time for many people, which can discourage users from reading the
301  documentation. If you need graphic images to help illustrate something in your
302  documentation consider supplying only a link to the image within the documentation,
303  instead of embedding it directly in the text. If an image is going to be included
304  in the text of the document you should specify the image's size in the &lt;img&gt; 
305  tag, in order to allow the user's browser to optimize the formatting of the
306  text before the image is loaded.</p>
307<h3><a name="non-breaking-spaces"></a>Non-breaking Spaces</h3>
308<p>Non-breaking spaces (&amp;nbsp;) should be avoided in HTML text. Generally
309  there are more appropriate ways to format the document, such as using list constructs
310  or specifying indentation as a style attribute or in cascading style sheets.</p>
311<h3><a name="style-sheets"></a>Cascading Style Sheets</h3>
312<p>Cascading style sheets allow you to apply some advanced formatting styles to
313  an HTML document. More importantly, they allow you to change the formatting
314  in a single file and effect all pages using the style sheet. Instead of struggling
315  to produce a specific format in HTML it's often easier and more flexible to
316  specify the formatting in a style sheet.</p>
317<h4><a name="boost-style-sheet"></a>Boost Style Sheet</h4>
318<p>The concept of using cascading style sheets to format HTML is such a good idea
319  that it can be beneficial to apply this across the entire Boost site. Of course
320  we can't require this (if Boost were to require such trivia for submissions
321  it's likely that many programmers would be discouraged from contributing). However,
322  a &quot;standard&quot; Boost style sheet (http://www.boost.org/boost.css) is
323  supplied anyway, so that a contributer can quickly and easily produce clear
324  and consistent documentation that reflects a Boost &quot;brand&quot; if they
325  so choose. If, at a later date, it's decided to update the Boost &quot;brand&quot;,
326  it may be done in this single file and all documents using the style sheet will
327  automatically be updated.</p>
328<p>The Boost supplied style sheet not only specifies styles for many standard
329  tags, it also specifies several style &quot;classes&quot;. A class is specified
330  for a given tag instead of being applied to all instances of a given tag type.
331  Below is a list of the classes specified in the Boost style sheet and a description
332  of when to use them:</p>
333<dl> 
334  <dt><b>index</b> Used for &lt;dl&gt; tags when writing index lists.</dt>
335  <dt><b>page-index</b> Used for &lt;dl&gt; tags when writing page index lists.</dt>
336  <dt><b>Footnote</b> Used when writing Footnote numbers.</dt>
337  <dt><b>function-semantics</b> Used for &lt;dl&gt; tags when writing function
338    semantic lists.</dt>
339</dl>
340<h2><a name="templates"></a>Templates</h2>
341<p>Instead of hand coding every HTML page, HTML "templates" can be used instead.
342  The list below provides links to templates that may be used when writing documentation
343  for a contribution to Boost. Links provided in these templates assume the files
344  will reside in the &quot;traditional&quot; directory hierarchy of <i>boost/libs/library/doc</i>.
345  They may need correcting if the file will reside in some other location.</p>
346<p><b>Note:</b> Since these &quot;templates&quot; are just HTML pages simply clicking
347  on the links below will load the template in your browser. You will need to
348  use a browser specific method to download the files instead of loading them
349  into the browser (for instance, on most Windows browsers you can right click
350  on the link and select the appropriate command from the context sensitive menu).</p>
351<ul>
352  <li><a name="index-template"></a><a href="template/index.html">Index Page Template</a></li>
353  <li><a name="overview-template"></a><a href="template/overview.html">Overview
354    Page Template</a></li>
355  <li><a name="definitions-template"></a><a href="template/definitions.html">Definitions
356    Page Template</a></li>
357  <li><a name="rationale-template"></a><a href="template/rationale.html">Rationale
358    Page Template</a></li>
359  <li><a name="configuration-template"></a><a href="template/configuration.html">Configuration
360    Page Template</a></li>
361  <li><a name="faq-template"></a><a href="template/faq.html">FAQ (Frequently Asked
362    Questions) Page Template</a></li>
363  <li><a name="bibliography-template"></a><a href="template/bibliography.html">Bibliography
364    Page Template</a></li>
365  <li><a name="acknowledgements-template"></a><a href="template/acknowledgments.html">Acknowledgments
366    Page Template</a></li>
367  <li><a name="header-template"></a><a href="template/header.html">Header Page
368    Template</a></li>
369</ul>
370<hr>
371<p>Revised
372  <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" S-Type="EDITED" S-Format="%d %B, %Y" startspan -->29 November, 2003<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="39371" -->
373</p>
374<p><i>&copy; Copyright <a href="mailto:williamkempf@hotmail.com">William E. Kempf</a> 
375  2001. All Rights Reserved.</i></p>
376</body>
377</html>
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