[GRASS5] Re: 5.1: --html-description to parser added

[Glynn Clements]

Markus Neteler wrote:

> > Derived from the --interface-description there is now
> > --html-description
> > available in the 5.1 parser (CVS).
> 
> A related question to this:
> 
> I would like to add a 'html' target to the 5.1 Makefiles.
> Prerequisite:
>  - a file 'description.html' will contain further description, notes,
>    author etc, stored in the directory of module source code
> 
> Makefile 'html' target idea:
>  - generate first part of the man page on-the-fly with --html-description
>  - append 'description.html'
>  - write all as file 'module.html' into HTML target directory
> 
> Problem:
> As G_gisinit() is used in every module, I cannot directly run
> in the Makefile:
> 
> html:
>         $(GISBASE)/etc/bin/cmd/$(PGM) --html-description <something>
> 	<add description.html>
> 	...
> 
> unless there is a fake GRASS session.

... and you *aren't* cross-compiling.

> Is there a better way than faking a GRASS session (hope so!)?

Ultimately most of G_gisinit() ought to be moved to G_parser(); but
that would require that everything actually used G_parser(), which
isn't the case at present.

There are some other problems. E.g. some modules call G_get_window(),
R_open_driver() etc and initialise the defaults based upon data from
the current region or the monitor. This is (arguably) OK if the user
is running "g.foo help" interactively, but it means that the defaults
in the HTML file will reflect the session which was used to generate
it.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn.clements at virgin.net>