[NeXus-committee] Formatting the NeXus Reference: Unified nested list

[Osborn, Raymond]

Joachim,
I like the new layout - it seems cleaner and easier to read. I think that’s as important as saving space. 

Ray

On Aug 20, 2014, at 6:33 AM, Joachim Wuttke <j.wuttke at fz-juelich.de> wrote:

> Dear all:
> 
> Currently, the NeXus Reference uses two different, overlapping
> partial representations to specify the structure and contents
> of base classes and application definitions: a tree view, and
> member tables.
> 
> I am working on utils/nxdl2rst.py to generate a unified nested
> list that provides a complete and simple replacement for those
> two representations. The attachments (one HTML page, and one
> page from the PDF book) show what I have achieved so far.
> 
> Unless advised otherwise, I will invest some more time into
> this to resolve a couple of minor issues, and then submit
> a pull request.
> 
> In my view, the proposed new formatting has the following
> advantages:
> 
> - It removes lots of redundancy, and thereby makes the docs
>  clearer, more readable, and much shorter. The PDF book will
>  shrink from 390 pages to approx. 290 pages!
> - It looks simpler, and therefore helps to make NeXus appear
>  simpler.
> - It simplifies the scripting machinery behind the documentation.
>  The three scripts <category>/nxdlformat.xsl are no longer needed.
>  In perspective, we could also replace nxdlxref.xsl and thereby
>  take the exotic and unpleasant language XSL completely out of our
>  toolchain. All formatting would then be done via Python and Sphinx.
>  Maintenance, format polishing, and further development will become
>  much easier.
> 
> Best regards, Joachim
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-- 
Ray Osborn, Senior Scientist
Materials Science Division
Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne, IL 60439, USA
Phone: +1 (630) 252-9011
Email: ROsborn at anl.gov