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<title>Writing Documentation for Boost - HTML Design</title>
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<h3><a href="index.html"><img height="86" width="277" alt="C++ Boost"
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<h1 align="center">Writing Documentation for Boost</h1>
<h2 align="center">HTML Design</h2>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<hr>
<dl class="page-index">
<dt><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#common-pages">Common Pages Included in HTML
Documentation</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl class="page-index">
<dt><a href="#index-page">Index</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#overview-page">Overview</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#definitions-page">Definitions</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#rationale-page">Rationale</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#configuration-page">Configuration Information</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#faq-page">Frequently Asked Questions</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#bibliography-page">Bibliography</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#acknowledgements-page">Acknowledgment</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#header-page">Header Reference</a></dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt><a href="#layout">Layout</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl class="page-index">
<dt><a href="#page-banner">Page Banner</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#page-index">Page Index</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#content">Documentation Content</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl class="page-index">
<dt><a href="#doc-footnotes">Footnotes</a></dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt><a href="#revision-info">Revision Information</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#copyright">Copyright Information</a></dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt><a href="#format">Format</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl class="page-index">
<dt><a href="#style-sheets">Cascading Style Sheets</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl class="page-index">
<dt><a href="#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style Sheet</a></dt>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt><a href="#templates">Templates</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl class="page-index">
<dt><a href="#index-template">Index Page Template</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#overview-template">Overview Page Template</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#definitions-template">Definitions Page
Template</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#rationale-template">Rationale Page Template</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#configuration-template">Configuration Page
Template</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#faq-template">FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page
Template</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#bibliography-template">Bibliography Page
Template</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#acknowledgements-template">Acknowledgments Page
Template</a></dt>
<dt><a href="#header-template">Header Page Template</a></dt>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
<h2><a name="introduction" id="introduction"></a>Introduction</h2>
<p>Boost places no requirements on the design of HTML documentation for
library submitters. If you are submitting a library for which documentation
already exists in either HTML or in a form easily converted to HTML then
there is no need for you to read this document. However, if you have not
yet written the documentation, or if you expect to have to translate
documentation written in a format not easily convertible to HTML then this
document can give you a lot of information on how to go about writing
documentation in HTML.</p>
<p>In several places this document assumes you're writing the documentation
to conform to the structure described in the <a href=
"structure.html">Documentation Structure</a> document. There is no
requirement that your documentation content follow these guidelines, but
they provide an effective way to communicate technical specifications for a
library in a terse yet precise manner that's familiar to many Boost
users.</p>
<p>This document also contains links to <a href="#templates">HTML template
files</a> that can be used to rapidly develop documentation for a library
submission. These templates follow the guidelines presented here and in the
<a href="structure.html">Documentation Structure</a> document.</p>
<h2><a name="common-pages" id="common-pages"></a>Common Pages Included in
HTML Documentation</h2>
<p>Most HTML documentation projects will contain some common pages. General
guidelines for these common pages are provided below.</p>
<h3><a name="index-page" id="index-page"></a>Index</h3>
<p>The index page is the first page presented to a user when he browses the
documentation. Generally this page should not contain any actual content,
but instead contains a list of links to specific content. At a minimum this
list should contain a link to every HTML page contained in the
documentation. Optionally, sub-lists may be provided for individual pages
linking to specific subjects within the page. These sub-lists should form a
"tree" hierarchy based on the level of heading tag used for the specific
subject. Inclusion of such sub-lists for every page can make the index
rather lengthy, and since each page should include its own <a href=
"#page-index">Page Index</a>, it may make the navigation of the
documentation easier if such sub-lists are avoided. However, there is one
exception to this guideline: reference documentation should contain a link
to every header file in the library and a sub-list with a link to every
macro, value, type, class, function and object (see <a href=
"structure.html">Documentation Structure</a>) found in the header. Users
aren't always sure what header file any of these may be contained in, so
this structure in the index allows for easy navigation of the reference
documentation.</p>
<p>The index list should generally be constructed using an HTML "definition
list" (&lt;dl&gt; and &lt;dt&gt; tags). A definition list has no bullets or
ordered specifications and produces a cleaner layout then an unordered list
(&lt;ul&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags) or an ordered list (&lt;ol&gt; and
&lt;li&gt; tags). If you choose to use the common <a href=
"#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style Sheet</a> you should add a
<code>class="index"</code> attribute/value pair to the &lt;dl&gt; tag.</p>
<p>An Index page <a href="#index-template">template</a> is provided for
use.</p>
<h3><a name="overview-page" id="overview-page"></a>Overview</h3>
<p>The Overview page is used to introduce the reader to the library. It
should give a high-level overview of the purpose of the library and
introduce the reader to any concepts they may be unfamiliar with. This may
also be an appropriate place for some "light" rationale, though more
thorough presentation of any rationale would be better placed in the
<a href="#rationale-page">Rational Page</a>.</p>
<p>Like most content pages, the Overview page should include a <a href=
"#page-index">Page Index</a>.</p>
<p>An Overview page <a href="#overview-template">template</a> is provided
for use.</p>
<h3><a name="definitions-page" id="definitions-page"></a>Definitions</h3>
<p>The Definitions page is used to provide a list of definitions for terms
that a user may be unfamiliar with.</p>
<p>The definition list should generally be constructed using an HTML
"definition list" (&lt;dl&gt; and &lt;DT&gt; tags). A definition list has
no bullets or ordered specifications and produces a cleaner layout then an
unordered list (&lt;UL&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags) or an ordered list
(&lt;ol&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags). If you choose to use the common <a href=
"#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style Sheet</a> you should add a
<code>class="definition"</code> attribute/value pair to the &lt;dl&gt;
tag.</p>
<p>Because this page's content should only contain a list of definitions,
it should not have a <a href="#page-index">Page Index</a>.</p>
<p>A Definitions page <a href="#definitions-template">template</a> is
provided for use.</p>
<h3><a name="rationale-page" id="rationale-page"></a>Rationale</h3>
<p>The Rationale page is used to provide lengthy descriptions of the
rationale behind the library's design. This information helps users to
understand why a library was designed the way it was and may reduce the
frequency of a number of frequently asked questions. For a better
description of why rationale is important see the <a href=
"http://www.boost.org/more/lib_guide.htm#Rationale">Rationale rationale</a>
in the general submission guidelines.</p>
<p>Like most content pages, the Rationale page should include a <a href=
"#page-index">Page Index</a>.</p>
<p>A Rationale page <a href="#rationale-template">template</a> is provided
for use.</p>
<h3><a name="configuration-page" id="configuration-page"></a>Configuration
Information</h3>
<p>The Configuration Information page is used to document configuration
macros used by the library. Such macros belong in one of three groups:
macros used by library implenters defined in
<code>&lt;boost/config.hpp&gt;</code>, macros used by library users to
detect platform configuration information and macros defined by library
users to configure library behavior.</p>
<p>Like most content pages, the Overview page should include a <a href=
"#page-index">Page Index</a>.</p>
<p>A Configuration page <a href="#configuration-template">template</a> is
provided for use.</p>
<h3><a name="faq-page" id="faq-page"></a>Frequently Asked Questions</h3>
<p>As a library matures the users will have questions about the usage of
the library. Often users will ask the same questions over and over again.
Rather than having to deal with answering the question every time it's
asked, a Frequently Asked Questions (commonly known as FAQs) page can be
used to document the questions and answers. This is such a valuable piece
of documentation not only for the users but for the maintainers as well,
that a FAQ page should be provided from the outset. If there are no
questions that will obviously become a FAQ, the initial page may just
indicate that there are no FAQs yet. This empty place holder helps to
indicate to the users that you plan to address any FAQs as they occur.</p>
<p>The <a href="#page-index">Page Index</a> for the FAQ page should contain
a list of all the questions contained in the document. The actual question
entries should be formatted with the question in a heading tag and the
answers in standard paragraph format. This provides a clean presentation
that's easy to read.</p>
<p>A Frequently Asked Questions page <a href="#faq-template">template</a>
is provided for use.</p>
<h3><a name="bibliography-page" id=
"bibliography-page"></a>Bibliography</h3>
<p>The Bibliography page is used to document any bibliographical
information associated with references made within the documentation to
external resources. Parenthetical references are used within the
documentation which link to entries in the Bibliography page.
Bibliographical entries provide detailed information about the external
resource and may contain hyper links to the resource if it's available
online. There are several formal styles used for writing bibliographies.
You may use what ever style you want, but one of the better styles to
consider using can be referenced <a href=
"http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html">here</a>.</p>
<p>Since the Bibliography page should contain only bibliographical
information there is no need for a <a href="#page-index">Page
Index</a>.</p>
<p>A Bibliography page <a href="#bibliography-template">template</a> is
provided for use.</p>
<h3><a name="acknowledgements-page" id=
"acknowledgements-page"></a>Acknowledgment</h3>
<p>The Acknowledgment page is used to give credit where credit is due. When
individuals provide input on the design or implementation, or when you make
use of someone else's work, you should acknowledge them. This is a courtesy
that you'd expect others to extend to you, so you should strive to
acknowledge the efforts of everyone else in your own documentation.</p>
<p>Since the Acknowledgment page should contain only a list of
acknowledgment there is no need for a <a href="#page-index">Page
Index</a>.</p>
<p>An Acknowledgments page <a href=
"#acknowledgements-template">template</a> is provided for use.</p>
<h3><a name="header-page" id="header-page"></a>Header Reference</h3>
<p>The Header Reference pages are the most important pages in your
documentation. They document all library headers, including all the macros,
values, types, classes, functions and objects defined in them. In general
it may prove useful to follow the guidelines in <a href=
"structure.html">Documentation Structure</a> when writing the content for
these pages.</p>
<p>Like most content pages, the Header Reference pages should include a
<a href="#page-index">Page Index</a>.</p>
<p>A Header Reference page <a href="#header-template">template</a> is
provided for use.</p>
<h2><a name="layout" id="layout"></a>Layout</h2>
<p>There are certain page layout concepts that will be used frequently in
many of your pages. This section outlines some general guidelines that you
can follow when designing each of these layout concepts for your
documentation.</p>
<h3><a name="page-banner" id="page-banner"></a>Page Banner</h3>
<p>The Page Banner is located at the very top of a page and provides quick
information about the page contents. This includes the Boost logo, which
indicates to the reader that this page is part of the Boost web site, a
title for the documentation (generally the library name) and the page
title. The Boost logo should hyper link to the Boost home page on the index
page and to the index page on all other pages. This allows the user to
easily navigate through the Boost web site and through the documentation.
The &lt;title&gt; tag for the HTML page should consist of the documentation
title and the page title separated by a hyphen.</p>
<p>The Page Banner should be separated from the rest of the page by the use
of an &lt;hr&gt; tag. This helps to clearly separate the actual content
from the title information and produces cleaner text.</p>
<h3><a name="page-index" id="page-index"></a>Page Index</h3>
<p>The page index is used to quickly navigate to the various sections of
the documentation on the page, and when present should be located just
below the Page Banner.</p>
<p>The index list should generally be constructed using an HTML "definition
list" (&lt;dl&gt; and &lt;DT&gt; tags). A definition list has no bullets or
ordered specifications and produces a cleaner layout then an unordered list
(&lt;UL&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags) or an ordered list (&lt;ol&gt; and
&lt;li&gt; tags). If you choose to use the Boost Style Sheet you should add
a <code>class="page-index"</code> attribute/value pair to the &lt;dl&gt;
tag.</p>
<p>Most pages should include a Page Index.</p>
<h3><a name="content" id="content"></a>Documentation Content</h3>
<p>The page's actual documentation content will be formatted according to
the specific needs of individual pages, and should be placed right after
the Page Index if present, or after the Page Banner if not. In general the
documentation content will take the form of paragraph text contained
underneath section headings.</p>
<h3><a name="doc-footnotes" id="doc-footnotes"></a>Footnotes</h3>
<p>Footnotes may be used within a page's documentation. Within the
documentation content a footnote reference should take the form of a
footnote number in parentheses (the parentheses make it easier for the
reader to click on the hyper link) hyper linking to the actual footnote at
the bottom of the page's documentation content. You may either use the
&lt;sup&gt; tag to format such footnote numbers, or, preferably, you can
use a CSS style class in order to distinguish the number as a footnote
instead of as part of the actual text. If you choose to use the common
<a href="#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style Sheet</a>, a <code>footnote</code>
class is defined for this purpose.</p>
<h3><a name="revision-info" id="revision-info"></a>Revision
Information</h3>
<p>At the bottom of every page should be some revision information
indicating when the page was last revised. This information should be
separated from the rest of the page above by an &lt;hr&gt; tag. The
following HTML code snippet can be used to track this revision information
(this code uses some server components that exist on the Boost web site to
automatically track revision dates with out the need for hand editing the
date text):</p>
<pre>
&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Revised
&lt;!--webbot bot="Timestamp" S-Type="EDITED" S-Format="%d %B, %Y" startspan --&gt;
01 January, 2001
&lt;!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="39359" --&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
</pre>
<h3><a name="copyright" id="copyright"></a>Copyright Information</h3>
<p>The very bottom of the page should contain any copyright information
that applies to the document.</p>
<h2><a name="format" id="format"></a>Format</h2>
<p>This section provides general guidelines for formatting documentation
using HTML. The description of the various "common pages" gave specific
details for formatting specific sections of the documentation, which should
override these guidelines.</p>
<h3><a name="code-format" id="code-format"></a>Code</h3>
<p>Code within the documentation should be placed within either
&lt;code&gt;&lt;/code&gt; or &lt;pre&gt;&lt;/pre&gt; tags. For code that's
placed inline with other text you use &lt;code&gt;&lt;/code&gt; tags, while
&lt;pre&gt;&lt;/pre&gt; tags are used for code "blocks". If a cascading
style sheet is used to specify formatting for these tags, a fixed width
sans serif font should be used. This insures that the code is easily
distinguishable from the rest of the text. It may also be beneficial to set
the style for &lt;pre&gt;&lt;/pre&gt; tags to indent the text, to help
separate code blocks from other structural HTML blocks. The <a href=
"#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style Sheet</a> specifies formatting for these
tags.</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> "Code" includes variable names, function names, etc.</p>
<h3><a name="lists" id="lists"></a>Lists</h3>
<p>Lists should be constructed as unordered (&lt;UL&gt; and &lt;li&gt;
tags), ordered (&lt;ol&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags) or definition (&lt;dl&gt;
and &lt;DT&gt; tags) lists in HTML. You use an unordered list when you need
a collection of items that don't have any kind of logical ordering, such as
a list of data types that are defined by the library and can be used for a
template argument. You use an ordered list when the collection of items
must be grouped in a logical ordering, such as when enumerating the steps
that an action logically performs. You use a definition list when the list
consists of not only items that have no logical ordering, but also contains
definitions/descriptions/etc. of the items. A good example of this is the
function specifications as described in <a href=
"structure.html">Documentation Structure</a>.</p>
<h3><a name="graphics" id="graphics"></a>Graphics</h3>
<p>Graphics should be used very sparingly, if at all. Graphic images
greatly effect the download time for many people, which can discourage
users from reading the documentation. If you need graphic images to help
illustrate something in your documentation consider supplying only a link
to the image within the documentation, instead of embedding it directly in
the text. If an image is going to be included in the text of the document
you should specify the image's size in the &lt;img&gt; tag, in order to
allow the user's browser to optimize the formatting of the text before the
image is loaded.</p>
<h3><a name="non-breaking-spaces" id="non-breaking-spaces"></a>Non-breaking
Spaces</h3>
<p>Non-breaking spaces (&amp;nbsp;) should be avoided in HTML text.
Generally there are more appropriate ways to format the document, such as
using list constructs or specifying indentation as a style attribute or in
cascading style sheets.</p>
<h3><a name="style-sheets" id="style-sheets"></a>Cascading Style
Sheets</h3>
<p>Cascading style sheets allow you to apply some advanced formatting
styles to an HTML document. More importantly, they allow you to change the
formatting in a single file and effect all pages using the style sheet.
Instead of struggling to produce a specific format in HTML it's often
easier and more flexible to specify the formatting in a style sheet.</p>
<h4><a name="boost-style-sheet" id="boost-style-sheet"></a>Boost Style
Sheet</h4>
<p>The concept of using cascading style sheets to format HTML is such a
good idea that it can be beneficial to apply this across the entire Boost
site. Of course we can't require this (if Boost were to require such trivia
for submissions it's likely that many programmers would be discouraged from
contributing). However, a "standard" Boost style sheet
(http://www.boost.org/boost.css) is supplied anyway, so that a contributer
can quickly and easily produce clear and consistent documentation that
reflects a Boost "brand" if they so choose. If, at a later date, it's
decided to update the Boost "brand", it may be done in this single file and
all documents using the style sheet will automatically be updated.</p>
<p>The Boost supplied style sheet not only specifies styles for many
standard tags, it also specifies several style "classes". A class is
specified for a given tag instead of being applied to all instances of a
given tag type. Below is a list of the classes specified in the Boost style
sheet and a description of when to use them:</p>
<dl>
<dt><b>index</b> Used for &lt;dl&gt; tags when writing index lists.</dt>
<dt><b>page-index</b> Used for &lt;dl&gt; tags when writing page index
lists.</dt>
<dt><b>Footnote</b> Used when writing Footnote numbers.</dt>
<dt><b>function-semantics</b> Used for &lt;dl&gt; tags when writing
function semantic lists.</dt>
</dl>
<h2><a name="templates" id="templates"></a>Templates</h2>
<p>Instead of hand coding every HTML page, HTML "templates" can be used
instead. The list below provides links to templates that may be used when
writing documentation for a contribution to Boost. Links provided in these
templates assume the files will reside in the "traditional" directory
hierarchy of <i>boost/libs/library/doc</i>. They may need correcting if the
file will reside in some other location.</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> Since these "templates" are just HTML pages simply clicking
on the links below will load the template in your browser. You will need to
use a browser specific method to download the files instead of loading them
into the browser (for instance, on most Windows browsers you can right
click on the link and select the appropriate command from the context
sensitive menu).</p>
<ul>
<li><a name="index-template" id="index-template"></a><a href=
"template/index.html">Index Page Template</a></li>
<li><a name="overview-template" id="overview-template"></a><a href=
"template/overview.html">Overview Page Template</a></li>
<li><a name="definitions-template" id="definitions-template"></a><a href=
"template/definitions.html">Definitions Page Template</a></li>
<li><a name="rationale-template" id="rationale-template"></a><a href=
"template/rationale.html">Rationale Page Template</a></li>
<li><a name="configuration-template" id=
"configuration-template"></a><a href=
"template/configuration.html">Configuration Page Template</a></li>
<li><a name="faq-template" id="faq-template"></a><a href=
"template/faq.html">FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page
Template</a></li>
<li><a name="bibliography-template" id=
"bibliography-template"></a><a href=
"template/bibliography.html">Bibliography Page Template</a></li>
<li><a name="acknowledgements-template" id=
"acknowledgements-template"></a><a href=
"template/acknowledgments.html">Acknowledgments Page Template</a></li>
<li><a name="header-template" id="header-template"></a><a href=
"template/header.html">Header Page Template</a></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p><a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer"><img border="0" src=
"../../doc/images/valid-html401.png" alt="Valid HTML 4.01 Transitional"
height="31" width="88"></a></p>
<p>Revised
<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" s-type="EDITED" s-format="%d %B, %Y" startspan -->04
December, 2006<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="38514" --></p>
<p><i>Copyright &copy; 2001 <a href=
"mailto:williamkempf@hotmail.com">William E. Kempf</a></i></p>
<p><i>Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See
accompanying file <a href="../../LICENSE_1_0.txt">LICENSE_1_0.txt</a> or
copy at <a href=
"http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)</i></p>
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