[ANN] BvG Docu

[Björnke von Gierke]

It's here, and there was much frolicking! (at least my cat is...)

I didn't like the way Rev presents it's documentation entries, so I 
made my own GUI (like Benedict Seidl did before).

There are two parts to it:
1. A library that takes all the xml stuff out of handling the 
documentation entries, which makes it easy for others to make their own 
documentation GUI stack.
2. And there's my own GUI stack, interfacing said library.

You need to be aware that the format/structure of the files of the docu 
changed a bit in some Rev versions, thus the stacks (at this point) 
only work with Rev versions 2.7.2 or newer.
You can greatly change the way each entry is shown using the layout 
settings, please adjust them to match your own style and needs. Really, 
take a look at the settings, there's some nifty stuff there. (Some of 
the beta testers never touched them, and I was a bit downed by that :-( 
)
Also of note should be that the stack saves on different occasions 
(after finishing the installation, every time you close the 
settings...). So it's not advised (or tested) to run it by using 'go 
url "http://..."'.

The stacks are located at the bottom of this page:
http://bjoernke.com/runrev/stacks.php
Direct link to my library (only interesting if you want to make your 
own GUI stack):
http://bjoernke.com/stacks/docslib_by_bvg.rev
Direct link to my GUI stack (includes the library):
http://bjoernke.com/stacks/bvg_docu.rev

Use these stacks at your own risk, and however you want. It'd be very 
cool if I could host your own docu stack based on my library, or if you 
would allow me to link to your version. Even if you don't want that, 
let me know if you use the library, that'll make me glad.
Thanks go to the chatrev fab four and shaosean for their input on 
earlier versions.

At this point it always seems strange for me to go back to the build in 
documentation (and I only did it to find bugs in my own stack). This 
behaviour tells me that I improved the usability for my needs compared 
to the existing documentation GUI.

have fun
Bjoernke von Gierke


Here end the required readings, below this line: more in depth 
information.



If you want to start my documentation stack every time revolution 
starts up, follow these steps (of course you can always just open it 
the usual way you open Rev stacks):
1. Download stack (link below), and save it into the "plugins" folder 
of your Revolution installation.
2. Open the plugin settings of Rev (Development->plugins->plugin 
settings)
3. Choose "BvG Docu" from the dropdown
4. hilite "Open when revolution starts up"
5. hilite "Open as modeless Stack"
6. close the plugin settings
7. restart rev
8. follow the installation instructions of "BvG Docu"
9. "BvG Docu" will now start every time you open Rev, ready to use

How it works:
Rev's docu is stored in stacks, as compressed custom properties. My 
library takes these, and makes one file per entry (there's ca 1500 of 
them). These files are then saved to a folder, and can be directly 
parsed, or accessed by sending the library a command.
The GUI stack I made just adds cream and a cherry on top, especially as 
I don't want to look at custom property sets or xml files every time I 
need to know some Rev command.

BvG Docu is better then the build in docu because of these (yay for 
bulletpoints):
- faster
- uses less screen real estate
- only show specified entries (ie. only properties or only keywords and 
objects)
- history that works
- more links can be clicked
- separate view for related
- easier to navigate without mouse (at least on Mac OS X)
- much more control about what to show for each entry (don't like the 
summary? Just leave it out)
- more (but not total) control about font settings (size, fontname, 
italic)

BvG Docu has these disadvantages to the build in docu:
- no synonym search/filter
- not sortable by version or compatibility
- no reverse sort (always A-Z)
- no glossary
- no link to the pdf
- no videos
- no search stack, and thus no full text search
- fixed place for the topics list, instead of two
- no toolbar/menu integration (however there's miniMe)

Both stacks share these disadvantages:
- same data source (for example the entry for $ is missing in 2.8.0)
- not made by you, so they might not fit your specific needs

-- 

official ChatRev page:
http://chatrev.bjoernke.com

Chat with other RunRev developers:
go stack URL "http://homepage.mac.com/bvg/chatrev1.3.rev"