Use Org-mode in your Common Lisp docstrings

To more easily keep your documentation synchronized with the source code, write your Common Lisp documentation strings in Org-mode format and use this system to extract each symbol usage into its own separate Org file. Then your user manual and other documentation can just include these sampled extracts. Updates to the manual can be automated from updates to the docstrings - which we're more likely to actually remember to do.

Requires iterate.

Main routines

Function write-package-files

Documents a package by writing an Org file for each defined symbol.

(write-package-files PACKAGE
                     [ :all FLAG ]
                     [ :system ASDF-SYSTEM-NAME ]
                     [ :path DIR ]
                     [ :index FLAG ]
                     [ :index-acc HASH-OR-NIL ]
                     [ :show-package FLAG ]
                     [ :hoist-exported FLAG ]
                     [ :page-title STRNIG ]
                     [ :always-disambiguate FLAG ]
                     [ :section-level NUMBER-OR-NIL ]
                     [ :package-headers FLAG ]
                     [ :usage-headers FLAG ]
                     [ :show-title FLAG ] )

• The package argument should be a package specifier.
• If the all keyword argument is given and is non-nil, then all symbols in the package should be documented, instead of just exported symbols.
• The path argument gives the directory where the files should be written. This directory will be created if it does not exist.
• A relative path is resolved relative to the location of the ASDF file defining the given system.
• When this function is called by another function in this package, index-acc will be a hash-table used to accumulate symbol references for the index that page will create. When this function is called as an API from outside of this system, or if no index will be needed, then the argument should be left nil.
• The show-package, hoist-exported, and page-title keyword arguments direct the formatting of the index page which this routine should create when it is the entry call to this package.
  • If show-package is non-nil, then the symbol's package name will be dsplayed on any index page.
  • If hoist-exported in non-nil, then the list of symbols will be divided according to the package which exports each symbol, or by internal symbols of all packages.
  • If non-nil, page-title should be a string to be used as the page name.

Function write-packages

Document several packages by making a call to write-package-files for each.

(write-packages PACKAGES
                [ :default-all FLAG ]
                [ :default-system ASDF-SYSTEM-NAME ]
                [ :default-path DIR ]
                [ :package-extension FLAG ]
                [ :extension-downcase FLAG ]
                [ :index FLAG ]
                [ :index-system ASDF-SYSTEM-NAME ]
                [ :index-acc HASH-TABLE ]
                [ :show-package FLAG ]
                [ :hoist-exported page-title FLAG ]
                [ :show-title FLAG ]
                [ :package-headers FLAG ]
                [ :usage-headers FLAG ] )

• The packages argument is a list giving a specification of the packages to be documented. Each element can be either a package designator or a list whose first element is a package designator and other elements are keyword arguments accepted by write-package-files. These keywords will be used for the call to write-package-files for that package.
• The default-all, default-system, and default-path arguments give the default arguments for the calls to write-package-files.
• If package-extension is non-nil (its default is t), then whenever a package spec does not give an explicit path, it should use a subdirectory of the default path whose name is taken from the package. If extension-downcase is non-nil (its default is t), then the package name is converted to lower-case for this extension.
• The index-acc is a hash-table used to accumulate symbol references for an index page, or nil if no index data should be saved.
• The show-package, hoist-exported, and page-title keyword arguments direct the formatting of the index page which this routine should create when it is the entry call to this package.
  • If show-package is non-nil, then the symbol's package name will be dsplayed on any index page.
  • If hoist-exported in non-nil, then the list of symbols will be divided according to the package which exports each symbol, or by internal symbols of all packages.
  • If non-nil, page-title should be a string to be used as the page name.

Function write-symbol-files

Writes Org-mode files (in the directory named by directory-path) documenting the uses of the given symbol.

(write-symbol-files SYMBOL DIRECTORY-PATH
  [ :index-acc HASH ] [ :always-disambiguate FLAG ] )

• The index-acc is a hash-table used to accumulate symbol references for an index page, or nil if no index data should be saved.
• This function will write a separate file for each use of the symbol, disambiguating the file name where necessary with __fn, __var and so forth. If always-disambiguate is non-nil, then these suffixes will always be added to the names of the generated files, even when a symbol has only one usage.

Nonstandard documentation targets

Function documentation*

Sometimes you may want to maintain documentation attached to non-standard targets in the source code, and pull those strings into the manual (for example, command options or available quoted forms). Some Lisp implementations make it easy to use non-standard targets to documentation; others essentially forbid it. The documentation* and (setf documentation*) functions manage the nonstandard documentation types on platforms which do not allow it.

(documentation* X DOC-TYPE)
(setf (documentation* X DOC-TYPE) DOC-STRING)

At this time, on Allegro Lisp these functions are inlined wrappers for the standard documentation functions, and on other platforms it filters out the non-standard types and stores them in the +nonstandard-doc-type+ hash.

Note that when using (setf documentation*) to install documentation strings of non-standard doc-type it is necessary to load the org-sampler ASDF system as a prerequisite of the documented system. This is in contrast to the use case of merely assembling documentation separately from loading the system, in which case there is no reason to :depends-on the Org-Sampler system.

Global switches

Variable *section-level*

If non-nil, then generated Org mode with begin with the indicated level of section header giving the name and use of the definition. If nil, no section header is generated.

Variable *show-package-header*

Whether a header line for the package should be written.

Variable *show-title*

Whether an initial comment with the title should be written.

Variable *show-usage-header*

Whether a header line for the usage should be written.

Variable *generate-html*

If non-nil, then an HTML file should be generated from each Org file.

Self-documentation

Function self-document

Applies Org-Sampler to itself in its own directory.