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Proposal: syntax highlight in html manual 7+ messages / 6 participants [nested] [flat]
* Proposal: syntax highlight in html manual @ 2011-04-13 10:31 Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]> 0 siblings, 3 replies; 7+ messages in thread From: Daniele Varrazzo @ 2011-04-13 10:31 UTC (permalink / raw) To: pgsql-docs Hello, when I wrote the docs for the GMP extension (http://pgmp.projects.postgresql.org/) I started improving the syntax highlight produced by pygments (https://bitbucket.org/dvarrazzo/pygments-postgres) for the PostgreSQL SQL dialect. I've also added specific lexers for PL/pgSQL and interactive psql sessions. The lexer handles all the PG constructs, has a list of keywords and datatypes parsed from the docs, and can also dispatch the content of a $$ string to a different lexer based on a related LANGUAGE keyword nearby (e.g. highlighting a PL/Python function using the Python lexer). Here you can see the result on the "regression document" I am using to develop the lexer: - http://pgmp.projects.postgresql.org/highlight/psql.html - http://pgmp.projects.postgresql.org/highlight/postgres.html Is there any interest in applying highlighted syntax to the html rendering of the manual? If there is, I think the rendering should be performed as a post-processing step on the html output and should be a totally optional phase: we may do it for the website but have the docs generation not to fail if the tools (python, pygments) are missing. There would be the need to tag every snippet in the docs with the correct language: I think the correct way is to use the "role" attribute in the docbook tags generating the snippets (screen, programlisting, synopsis...): its value can be propagated to the html (e.g. as a css class) using a suitable docbook configuration (see <http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/HtmlCustomEx.html#CustomClassValues;, albeit a test I've done in that direction failed - but I'm completely clueless about debugging the docbooc tool chain). I've scraped all the docs snippets (about 3k) into a database and written an interactive tool to tag them with a language: I'm using the tool to find snippets to test the lexer with and immediately check the result. Examples here (these are static pages, not the live tool): - http://pgmp.projects.postgresql.org/highlight/snippets/plpgsql-control-structures.html - http://pgmp.projects.postgresql.org/highlight/snippets/plpython-data.html The result of the tagging may be used to patch the docs, injecting the role in the sgml source. If you like the idea I can work at the missing parts, e.g. fixing the ambiguities in the examples (missing psql prompts etc), tag all the snippets, write the script to postprocess the html (which should also put back the result of the docbook semantic tagging to have e.g. "replaceable" rendered in italic), maybe have a specific lexer for the synopsis etc. Otherwise I'll just hack on the lexer until I'm happy and contribute it back to the pygments project. On your side I just expect to have the role propagation fixed in the xslt and of course to accept the doc patches produced. Let me know if you like the idea. Best regards, -- Daniele ^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
* Re: Proposal: syntax highlight in html manual @ 2011-04-13 15:02 Tom Lane <[email protected]> parent: Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]> 2 siblings, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread From: Tom Lane @ 2011-04-13 15:02 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]>; +Cc: pgsql-docs Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]> writes: > when I wrote the docs for the GMP extension > (http://pgmp.projects.postgresql.org/) I started improving the syntax > highlight produced by pygments > (https://bitbucket.org/dvarrazzo/pygments-postgres) for the PostgreSQL > SQL dialect. I've also added specific lexers for PL/pgSQL and > interactive psql sessions. The lexer handles all the PG constructs, > has a list of keywords and datatypes parsed from the docs, and can > also dispatch the content of a $$ string to a different lexer based on > a related LANGUAGE keyword nearby (e.g. highlighting a PL/Python > function using the Python lexer). Here you can see the result on the > "regression document" I am using to develop the lexer: > - http://pgmp.projects.postgresql.org/highlight/psql.html > - http://pgmp.projects.postgresql.org/highlight/postgres.html > Is there any interest in applying highlighted syntax to the html > rendering of the manual? FWIW, there are very few things in the world that I hate more than randomly multicolored text. Almost always, some of it is unreadable in a particular viewing context because of poor contrast. And as often as not, the stuff that does stand out isn't the most important parts of the text. So no, this isn't a direction I want to see the Postgres documentation take. regards, tom lane ^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
* Re: Proposal: syntax highlight in html manual @ 2011-04-13 15:48 Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]> parent: Tom Lane <[email protected]> 0 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread From: Susanne Ebrecht @ 2011-04-13 15:48 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Tom Lane <[email protected]>; +Cc: Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]>; pgsql-docs On 13.04.2011 17:02, Tom Lane wrote: > FWIW, there are very few things in the world that I hate more than > randomly multicolored text. Almost always, some of it is unreadable > in a particular viewing context because of poor contrast. And as > often as not, the stuff that does stand out isn't the most important > parts of the text. > > So no, this isn't a direction I want to see the Postgres documentation > take. Tom, as color blind (blue blind (tritanope)) person I just can say thanks for that statement. Colored text / background is always horrible for color blinds. The best always is black on white or vise versa. Susanne P.S.: btw. my google chrome color filter usually makes the postgresql elephant either green or pink -- Susanne Ebrecht - 2ndQuadrant PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training and Services www.2ndQuadrant.com ^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
* Re: Proposal: syntax highlight in html manual @ 2011-04-13 16:14 Kevin Grittner <[email protected]> parent: Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]> 2 siblings, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread From: Kevin Grittner @ 2011-04-13 16:14 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]>; pgsql-docs Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]> wrote: > - http://pgmp.projects.postgresql.org/highlight/psql.html > - http://pgmp.projects.postgresql.org/highlight/postgres.html > > Is there any interest in applying highlighted syntax to the html > rendering of the manual? When using an editor I like some color highlighting, as long as I can control the colors. Documentation is very different, especially since the user probably wouldn't have any control over the colors. The examples in the links above are very hard for me to read, and definitely *not* something I would want in the documentation. There might be room to do something limited and subtle, like maybe making comments a dark gray while other text is black or possibly making computer-generated output very dark blue versus black for user input. It should be subtle enough not to draw attention to it, but rather to give subtle cues. If the display screams "HEY! LOOK HERE!" about anything, it's just wrong. Overall, I'm dubious about whether it would be worth the effort, even if you can come up with a scheme which people like. -Kevin ^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
* Re: Proposal: syntax highlight in html manual @ 2011-04-13 16:21 Thom Brown <[email protected]> parent: Kevin Grittner <[email protected]> 0 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread From: Thom Brown @ 2011-04-13 16:21 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Kevin Grittner <[email protected]>; +Cc: Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]>; pgsql-docs On 13 April 2011 17:14, Kevin Grittner <[email protected]> wrote: > Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]> wrote: > >> - http://pgmp.projects.postgresql.org/highlight/psql.html >> - http://pgmp.projects.postgresql.org/highlight/postgres.html >> >> Is there any interest in applying highlighted syntax to the html >> rendering of the manual? > > When using an editor I like some color highlighting, as long as I > can control the colors. Documentation is very different, especially > since the user probably wouldn't have any control over the colors. > The examples in the links above are very hard for me to read, and > definitely *not* something I would want in the documentation. > > There might be room to do something limited and subtle, like maybe > making comments a dark gray while other text is black or possibly > making computer-generated output very dark blue versus black for > user input. It should be subtle enough not to draw attention to it, > but rather to give subtle cues. If the display screams "HEY! LOOK > HERE!" about anything, it's just wrong. > > Overall, I'm dubious about whether it would be worth the effort, > even if you can come up with a scheme which people like. If we had any sort of syntax highlighting in the docs, I'd only expect keywords in bold, and everything else regular. No colour changes. Saying that, it would then interfere with examples that have emphasised text, such as here: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/ddl-constraints.html#DDL-CONSTRAINTS-FK And even if it didn't, I don't think it brings enough benefit to warrant implementation. -- Thom Brown Twitter: @darkixion IRC (freenode): dark_ixion Registered Linux user: #516935 EnterpriseDB UK: http://www.enterprisedb.com The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company ^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
* Re: Proposal: syntax highlight in html manual @ 2011-04-13 18:34 Peter Eisentraut <[email protected]> parent: Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]> 2 siblings, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread From: Peter Eisentraut @ 2011-04-13 18:34 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]>; +Cc: pgsql-docs On ons, 2011-04-13 at 11:31 +0100, Daniele Varrazzo wrote: > If there is, I think the rendering should be performed as a > post-processing step on the html output and should be a totally > optional phase: we may do it for the website but have the docs > generation not to fail if the tools (python, pygments) are missing. > There would be the need to tag every snippet in the docs with the > correct language: I think the correct way is to use the "role" > attribute in the docbook tags generating the snippets (screen, > programlisting, synopsis...): its value can be propagated to the html > (e.g. as a css class) using a suitable docbook configuration (see > <http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/HtmlCustomEx.html#CustomClassValues;, > albeit a test I've done in that direction failed - but I'm completely > clueless about debugging the docbooc tool chain). I guess the verdict is that we shouldn't do it by default, but what we could do anyway is language tag the code as you describe. Then users could either hook in client-side Javascript to do the highlighting or whoever wants to can produce an alternative colorful pygments-based version. ^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
* Re: Proposal: syntax highlight in html manual @ 2011-04-13 19:20 Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]> parent: Peter Eisentraut <[email protected]> 0 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread From: Daniele Varrazzo @ 2011-04-13 19:20 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Peter Eisentraut <[email protected]>; +Cc: pgsql-docs On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 7:34 PM, Peter Eisentraut <[email protected]> wrote: > On ons, 2011-04-13 at 11:31 +0100, Daniele Varrazzo wrote: >> If there is, I think the rendering should be performed as a >> post-processing step on the html output and should be a totally >> optional phase: we may do it for the website but have the docs >> generation not to fail if the tools (python, pygments) are missing. >> There would be the need to tag every snippet in the docs with the >> correct language: I think the correct way is to use the "role" >> attribute in the docbook tags generating the snippets (screen, >> programlisting, synopsis...): its value can be propagated to the html >> (e.g. as a css class) using a suitable docbook configuration (see >> <http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/HtmlCustomEx.html#CustomClassValues;, >> albeit a test I've done in that direction failed - but I'm completely >> clueless about debugging the docbooc tool chain). > > I guess the verdict is that we shouldn't do it by default, but what we > could do anyway is language tag the code as you describe. Then users > could either hook in client-side Javascript to do the highlighting or > whoever wants to can produce an alternative colorful pygments-based > version. Fine for me, the motivation for not wanting highlight in the official docs are pretty solid. If you fancy implementing the role to class propagation I may complete the tagging and provide patches for the sgml, but I expect it to be pretty much everything. Regards, -- Daniele ^ permalink raw reply [nested|flat] 7+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2011-04-13 19:20 UTC | newest] Thread overview: 7+ messages (download: mbox mbox.gz follow: Atom feed) -- links below jump to the message on this page -- 2011-04-13 10:31 Proposal: syntax highlight in html manual Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]> 2011-04-13 15:02 ` Tom Lane <[email protected]> 2011-04-13 15:48 ` Susanne Ebrecht <[email protected]> 2011-04-13 16:14 ` Kevin Grittner <[email protected]> 2011-04-13 16:21 ` Thom Brown <[email protected]> 2011-04-13 18:34 ` Peter Eisentraut <[email protected]> 2011-04-13 19:20 ` Daniele Varrazzo <[email protected]>
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