Re: Many procedures, what to do?

[davidf(at)dfanning.com (David Fanning)]

Craig Markwardt (craigmnet@cow.physics.wisc.edu) writes:
> 
> I guess what I'm saying is that I *already* have a library of 25
> individual files that do low-level stuff.  I am feeling like this is a
> pain in the butt for me and for other people to manage.  Also, all of
> these functions share a lot of common parameters and keywords, so it
> makes sense to only document them once, rather than in each file.  All
> typing and no rest makes Craig a bad carpal tunnel boy.

Ah, this is what HTML files are for, IMHO. :-)

> My thought was to collapse all these routines into one single file.
> That way it's easy to keep everything in one place, and there can be
> lots of shared documentation.
> 
> The problem with that is then there are a bunch of functions like
> CMSV_RLONG CMSV_RSTRING, CMSV_RCOMM, stored in a file called
> cmsvlib.pro.  IDL has no way to figure out these functions are stored
> in cmsvlib.pro, or for that matter that they are functions at all.
> 
> You are saying, "put each function in a separate file."  I am saying,
> "I already have that, but am wondering whether one single library file
> would be more convenient for downloaders."

My experience suggests users like zip files. They don't really
care how many separate files there are. When I download these
files, I'm going to put them in my craigm subdirectory anyway.
I would just throw that HTML (or, better yet, PDF) documentation
file in with all the program files. People will figure it out, 
most of them. The rest will hound you night and day until you
just finally take the time to put the documentation in each file.
But that's the way the world works, I'm afraid. :-)

Cheers,

David

-- 
David Fanning, Ph.D.
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