Voice of the PPL

While brainstorming about a really cool technology that will be implemented into PPL 2.0 next week, I realized that function descriptions that are currently hosted in a standard help file could be put into an xml file which could pop-up the description directly from the code editor. I feel this will make for a better help for developers.

If I leave it in the help file, I will have less control in the end. Maybe if the help file is made of html pages, then I can find a way to display the html page of a function right inside the editor.

The nice thing about having an xml to hold the functions description is that, all the new user-created functions can be part of the help system, without having to merge two help files, it never works well and is cumbersome to do.

What do you guys think is an ideal solution:

1. Regular help file with all functions in it. (Merging two help files is required).
2. Html help with each function description in an seperate file. (Won’t be easy for everone to merge and create help pages)
3. An external .xml file. (User written documentation can be accessible right away).

The xml file will be generated automatically from the project file along side the .ppl library file. The method/property description is a property of the PProperty/PMethod objects. Yes, in PPL 2.0, you create libraries of classes using the visual editor by dragging property components and method components to the object of your choice, PPL will generate an extra property/method for that new object class. If you decide to create your own class, all you have to do is select the “Class” or “Visual Control” from the New Project dialog. This will be part of a video demonstrating this powerful feature later.

Please voice your opinions.