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The CodeChat system for software documentation

Project description

Welcome to CodeChat, a programmer’s word processor. CodeChat encourages literate programming by transforming source files into web pages and by providing a powerful editor which synchronizes between the source code view and the web view of a document. CodeChat transforms plain-text source code into a beautiful and descriptive document, allowing you to record your ideas, helpful hyperlinks to on-line resources, include expressive images and diagrams, and much more.

Installation

First, install pip if you don’t yet have it. Then, from a command prompt, run pip install -U CodeChat. The -U flag upgrades CodeChat to the latest version if it’s already installed.

Next install Enki, which hosts the CodeChat system.

Use

Open some source code of a supported format [1]. In the Settings | Settings | CodeChat panel, click Enable then OK. Now, any properly-formatted comments will be interpreted as ReST. For example:

Source code

CodeChat results

// ReST_ works *here*.
//But not here -- a space must follow the comment.
/* Not here either. Only single-line comments work. */
a = 1; // Not here either. Comments must be on a
b = 2; // separate line, not following code.

ReST works here.

//But not here -- a space must follow the comment.
/* Not here either. Only single-line comments work. */
a = 1; // Not here either. Comments must be on a
b = 2; // separate line, not following code.

Sphinx

“Sphinx is a tool that makes it easy to create intelligent and beautiful documentation” [2]. It provides additional features, including the ability to link together many documents (such as all the files in a program’s source code). To use Sphinx with Enki:

  1. Go to Settings | Settings | CodeChat and enable Sphinx and CodeChat.

  2. Choose a project directory, which contains source code to document.

  3. Click OK. Then, open a source file in the project directory you select.

  4. Open the Preview pane, where the source code will be displayed.

ReST

“reStructuredText is an easy-to-read, what-you-see-is-what-you-get plaintext markup syntax” [3]. Helpful pages:

Contributing

This is a fairly basic implementation; much improvement is needed! Please use the issue tracker to report bugs or request features; even better, or contribute to the code at the CodeChat homepage!

Recent changes

  • Development version:
    • Update setup.py based on modern usage.

    • Update docs.

    • Remove unused PyQt dependencies.

    • Modernize documentation style in LanguageSpecificOptions.py.

  • 0.0.17, 17-Nov-2014:
    • Support Sphinx versions before 1.2.

    • Move non-CodeChat templates to Enki.

  • 0.0.16 - 0.0.13, 11-Nov-2014:

    • Improved Sphinx template: doesn’t replace default.css.

    • Updated CSS to work better with docutils.

  • 0.0.12, released 1-Sep-2014:

    • Fixes so that CodeChat’s Sphinx extension now works.

    • File encoding can now be specified.

    • Installaiton instructions added and docs reworked.

  • 0.0.11, released 1-May-2014:

    • Fixed Unicode errors.

    • Removed incorrect extra spacing between code and comments.

    • Fixed unit tests and added a few more.

    • Removed unused CodeLink directive.

  • 0.0.10, released 17-Apr-2014:

    • Revamped packaging.

    • Updated docs.

    • Used .. instead of marker to indent comments, producing cleaner ReST.

    • Split CodeToRest into CodeToRest, CodeToRestSphinx modules.

License

Copyright (C) 2012-2014 Bryan A. Jones.

This file is part of CodeChat.

CodeChat is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

CodeChat is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with CodeChat. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

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