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<title>Writing Documentation for Boost - HTML Design</title>
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      <h3><a href="index.html"><img height="86" width="277" alt="C++ Boost" src="../../boost.png" border="0"></a></h3>
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    <td valign="top"> 
      <h1 align="center">Writing Documentation for Boost</h1>
      <h2 align="center">HTML Design</h2>
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<hr>
<dl class="page-index"> 
  <dt><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></dt>
  <dt><a href="#common-pages">Common Pages Included in HTML Documentation</a></dt>
  <dl class="page-index"> 
    <dt><a href="#index-page">Index</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#overview-page">Overview</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#definitions-page">Definitions</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#rationale-page">Rationale</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#configuration-page">Configuration Information</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#faq-page">Frequently Asked Questions</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#bibliography-page">Bibliography</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#acknowledgements-page">Acknowledgment</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#header-page">Header Reference</a></dt>
  </dl>
  <dt><a href="#layout">Layout</a></dt>
  <dl class="page-index"> 
    <dt><a href="#page-banner">Page Banner</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#page-index">Page Index</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#content">Documentation Content</a></dt>
    <dl class="page-index"> 
      <dt><a href="#doc-footnotes">Footnotes</a></dt>
    </dl>
    <dt><a href="#revision-info">Revision Information</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#copyright">Copyright Information</a></dt>
  </dl>
  <dt><a href="#format">Format</a></dt>
  <dl class="page-index"> 
    <dt><a href="#style-sheets">Cascading Style Sheets</a></dt>
    <dl class="page-index"> 
      <dt><a href="#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style Sheet</a></dt>
    </dl>
  </dl>
  <dt><a href="#templates">Templates</a></dt>
  <dl class="page-index"> 
    <dt><a href="#index-template">Index Page Template</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#overview-template">Overview Page Template</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#definitions-template">Definitions Page Template</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#rationale-template">Rationale Page Template</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#configuration-template">Configuration Page Template</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#faq-template">FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page Template</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#bibliography-template">Bibliography Page Template</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#acknowledgements-template">Acknowledgments Page Template</a></dt>
    <dt><a href="#header-template">Header Page Template</a></dt>
  </dl>
</dl>
<h2><a name="introduction"></a>Introduction</h2>
<p>Boost places no requirements on the design of HTML documentation for library 
  submitters. If you are submitting a library for which documentation already 
  exists in either HTML or in a form easily converted to HTML then there is no 
  need for you to read this document. However, if you have not yet written the 
  documentation, or if you expect to have to translate documentation written in 
  a format not easily convertible to HTML then this document can give you a lot 
  of information on how to go about writing documentation in HTML.</p>
<p>In several places this document assumes you're writing the documentation to 
  conform to the structure described in the <a href="structure.html">Documentation 
  Structure</a> document. There is no requirement that your documentation content 
  follow these guidelines, but they provide an effective way to communicate technical 
  specifications for a library in a terse yet precise manner that's familiar to 
  many Boost users.</p>
<p>This document also contains links to <a href="#templates">HTML template files</a> 
  that can be used to rapidly develop documentation for a library submission. 
  These templates follow the guidelines presented here and in the <a href="structure.html">Documentation 
  Structure</a> document.</p>
<h2><a name="common-pages"></a>Common Pages Included in HTML Documentation</h2>
<p>Most HTML documentation projects will contain some common pages. General guidelines 
  for these common pages are provided below.</p>
<h3><a name="index-page"></a>Index</h3>
<p>The index page is the first page presented to a user when he browses the documentation. 
  Generally this page should not contain any actual content, but instead contains 
  a list of links to specific content. At a minimum this list should contain a 
  link to every HTML page contained in the documentation. Optionally, sub-lists 
  may be provided for individual pages linking to specific subjects within the 
  page. These sub-lists should form a &quot;tree&quot; hierarchy based on the 
  level of heading tag used for the specific subject. Inclusion of such sub-lists 
  for every page can make the index rather lengthy, and since each page should 
  include its own <a href="#page-index">Page Index</a>, it may make the navigation 
  of the documentation easier if such sub-lists are avoided. However, there is 
  one exception to this guideline: reference documentation should contain a link 
  to every header file in the library and a sub-list with a link to every macro, 
  value, type, class, function and object (see <a href="structure.html">Documentation 
  Structure</a>) found in the header. Users aren't always sure what header file 
  any of these may be contained in, so this structure in the index allows for 
  easy navigation of the reference documentation.</p>
<p>The index list should generally be constructed using an HTML &quot;definition 
  list&quot; (&lt;dl&gt; and &lt;dt&gt; tags). A definition list has no bullets 
  or ordered specifications and produces a cleaner layout then an unordered list 
  (&lt;ul&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags) or an ordered list (&lt;ol&gt; and &lt;li&gt; 
  tags). If you choose to use the common <a href="#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style 
  Sheet</a> you should add a <code>class="index"</code> attribute/value pair to 
  the &lt;dl&gt; tag.</p>
<p>An Index page <a href="#index-template">template</a> is provided for use.</p>
<h3><a name="overview-page"></a>Overview</h3>
<p>The Overview page is used to introduce the reader to the library. It should 
  give a high-level overview of the purpose of the library and introduce the reader 
  to any concepts they may be unfamiliar with. This may also be an appropriate 
  place for some &quot;light&quot; rationale, though more thorough presentation 
  of any rationale would be better placed in the <a href="#rationale-page">Rational 
  Page</a>.</p>
<p>Like most content pages, the Overview page should include a <a href="#page-index">Page 
  Index</a>.</p>
<p>An Overview page <a href="#overview-template">template</a> is provided for 
  use.</p>
<h3><a name="definitions-page"></a>Definitions</h3>
<p>The Definitions page is used to provide a list of definitions for terms that 
  a user may be unfamiliar with.</p>
<p>The definition list should generally be constructed using an HTML &quot;definition 
  list&quot; (&lt;dl&gt; and &lt;DT&gt; tags). A definition list has no bullets 
  or ordered specifications and produces a cleaner layout then an unordered list 
  (&lt;UL&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags) or an ordered list (&lt;ol&gt; and &lt;li&gt; 
  tags). If you choose to use the common <a href="#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style 
  Sheet</a> you should add a <code>class="definition"</code> attribute/value pair 
  to the &lt;dl&gt; tag.</p>
<p>Because this page's content should only contain a list of definitions, it should 
  not have a <a href="#page-index">Page Index</a>.</p>
<p></p>
<p> A Definitions page <a href="#definitions-template">template</a> is provided 
  for use.</p>
<h3><a name="rationale-page"></a>Rationale</h3>
<p>The Rationale page is used to provide lengthy descriptions of the rationale 
  behind the library's design. This information helps users to understand why 
  a library was designed the way it was and may reduce the frequency of a number 
  of frequently asked questions. For a better description of why rationale is 
  important see the <a href="http://www.boost.org/more/lib_guide.htm#Rationale">Rationale 
  rationale</a> in the general submission guidelines.</p>
<p>Like most content pages, the Rationale page should include a <a href="#page-index">Page 
  Index</a>.</p>
<p></p>
<p>A Rationale page <a href="#rationale-template">template</a> is provided for 
  use.</p>
<h3><a name="configuration-page"></a>Configuration Information</h3>
<p>The Configuration Information page is used to document configuration macros 
  used by the library. Such macros belong in one of three groups: macros used 
  by library implenters defined in <code>&lt;boost/config.hpp&gt;</code>, macros 
  used by library users to detect platform configuration information and macros 
  defined by library users to configure library behavior.</p>
<p>Like most content pages, the Overview page should include a <a href="#page-index">Page 
  Index</a>.</p>
<p></p>
<p>A Configuration page <a href="#configuration-template">template</a> is provided 
  for use.</p>
<h3><a name="faq-page"></a>Frequently Asked Questions</h3>
<p>As a library matures the users will have questions about the usage of the library. 
  Often users will ask the same questions over and over again. Rather than having 
  to deal with answering the question every time it's asked, a Frequently Asked 
  Questions (commonly known as FAQs) page can be used to document the questions 
  and answers. This is such a valuable piece of documentation not only for the 
  users but for the maintainers as well, that a FAQ page should be provided from 
  the outset. If there are no questions that will obviously become a FAQ, the 
  initial page may just indicate that there are no FAQs yet. This empty place 
  holder helps to indicate to the users that you plan to address any FAQs as they 
  occur.</p>
<p>The <a href="#page-index">Page Index</a> for the FAQ page should contain a 
  list of all the questions contained in the document. The actual question entries 
  should be formatted with the question in a heading tag and the answers in standard 
  paragraph format. This provides a clean presentation that's easy to read.</p>
<p>A Frequently Asked Questions page <a href="#faq-template">template</a> is provided 
  for use.</p>
<h3><a name="bibliography-page"></a>Bibliography</h3>
<p>The Bibliography page is used to document any bibliographical information associated 
  with references made within the documentation to external resources. Parenthetical 
  references are used within the documentation which link to entries in the Bibliography 
  page. Bibliographical entries provide detailed information about the external 
  resource and may contain hyper links to the resource if it's available online. 
  There are several formal styles used for writing bibliographies. You may use 
  what ever style you want, but one of the better styles to consider using can 
  be referenced <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html">here</a>.</p>
<p>Since the Bibliography page should contain only bibliographical information 
  there is no need for a <a href="#page-index">Page Index</a>.</p>
<p>A Bibliography page <a href="#bibliography-template">template</a> is provided 
  for use.</p>
<h3><a name="acknowledgements-page"></a>Acknowledgment</h3>
<p>The Acknowledgment page is used to give credit where credit is due. When individuals 
  provide input on the design or implementation, or when you make use of someone 
  else's work, you should acknowledge them. This is a courtesy that you'd expect 
  others to extend to you, so you should strive to acknowledge the efforts of 
  everyone else in your own documentation.</p>
<p>Since the Acknowledgment page should contain only a list of acknowledgment 
  there is no need for a <a href="#page-index">Page Index</a>.</p>
<p>An Acknowledgments page <a href="#acknowledgements-template">template</a> is 
  provided for use.</p>
<h3><a name="header-page"></a>Header Reference</h3>
<p>The Header Reference pages are the most important pages in your documentation. 
  They document all library headers, including all the macros, values, types, 
  classes, functions and objects defined in them. In general it may prove useful 
  to follow the guidelines in <a href="structure.html">Documentation Structure</a> 
  when writing the content for these pages.</p>
<p>Like most content pages, the Header Reference pages should include a <a href="#page-index">Page 
  Index</a>.</p>
<p>A Header Reference page <a href="#header-template">template</a> is provided 
  for use.</p>
<h2><a name="layout"></a>Layout</h2>
<p>There are certain page layout concepts that will be used frequently in many 
  of your pages. This section outlines some general guidelines that you can follow 
  when designing each of these layout concepts for your documentation.</p>
<h3><a name="page-banner"></a>Page Banner</h3>
<p>The Page Banner is located at the very top of a page and provides quick information 
  about the page contents. This includes the Boost logo, which indicates to the 
  reader that this page is part of the Boost web site, a title for the documentation 
  (generally the library name) and the page title. The Boost logo should hyper 
  link to the Boost home page on the index page and to the index page on all other 
  pages. This allows the user to easily navigate through the Boost web site and 
  through the documentation. The &lt;title&gt; tag for the HTML page should consist 
  of the documentation title and the page title separated by a hyphen.</p>
<p>The Page Banner should be separated from the rest of the page by the use of 
  an &lt;hr&gt; tag. This helps to clearly separate the actual content from the 
  title information and produces cleaner text.</p>
<h3><a name="page-index"></a>Page Index</h3>
<p>The page index is used to quickly navigate to the various sections of the documentation 
  on the page, and when present should be located just below the Page Banner.</p>
<p>The index list should generally be constructed using an HTML &quot;definition 
  list&quot; (&lt;dl&gt; and &lt;DT&gt; tags). A definition list has no bullets 
  or ordered specifications and produces a cleaner layout then an unordered list 
  (&lt;UL&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags) or an ordered list (&lt;ol&gt; and &lt;li&gt; 
  tags). If you choose to use the Boost Style Sheet you should add a <code>class="page-index"</code> 
  attribute/value pair to the &lt;dl&gt; tag.</p>
<p>Most pages should include a Page Index.</p>
<h3><a name="content"></a>Documentation Content</h3>
<p>The page's actual documentation content will be formatted according to the 
  specific needs of individual pages, and should be placed right after the Page 
  Index if present, or after the Page Banner if not. In general the documentation 
  content will take the form of paragraph text contained underneath section headings.</p>
<h3><a name="doc-footnotes"></a>Footnotes</h3>
<p>Footnotes may be used within a page's documentation. Within the documentation 
  content a footnote reference should take the form of a footnote number in parentheses 
  (the parentheses make it easier for the reader to click on the hyper link) hyper 
  linking to the actual footnote at the bottom of the page's documentation content. 
  You may either use the &lt;sup&gt; tag to format such footnote numbers, or, 
  preferably, you can use a CSS style class in order to distinguish the number 
  as a footnote instead of as part of the actual text. If you choose to use the 
  common <a href="#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style Sheet</a>, a <code>footnote</code> 
  class is defined for this purpose.</p>
<h3><a name="revision-info"></a>Revision Information</h3>
<p>At the bottom of every page should be some revision information indicating 
  when the page was last revised. This information should be separated from the 
  rest of the page above by an &lt;hr&gt; tag. The following HTML code snippet 
  can be used to track this revision information (this code uses some server components 
  that exist on the Boost web site to automatically track revision dates with 
  out the need for hand editing the date text):</p>
<pre>&lt;hr&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Revised
  &lt;!--webbot bot=&quot;Timestamp&quot; S-Type=&quot;EDITED&quot; S-Format=&quot;%d %B, %Y&quot; startspan --&gt;
  01 January, 2001
  &lt;!--webbot bot=&quot;Timestamp&quot; endspan i-checksum=&quot;39359&quot; --&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
</pre>
<h3><a name="copyright"></a>Copyright Information</h3>
<p>The very bottom of the page should contain any copyright information that applies 
  to the document.</p>
<h2><a name="format"></a>Format</h2>
<p>This section provides general guidelines for formatting documentation using 
  HTML. The description of the various &quot;common pages&quot; gave specific 
  details for formatting specific sections of the documentation, which should 
  override these guidelines.</p>
<h3><a name="code-format"></a>Code</h3>
<p>Code within the documentation should be placed within either &lt;code&gt;&lt;/code&gt; 
  or &lt;pre&gt;&lt;/pre&gt; tags. For code that's placed inline with other text 
  you use &lt;code&gt;&lt;/code&gt; tags, while &lt;pre&gt;&lt;/pre&gt; tags are 
  used for code &quot;blocks&quot;. If a cascading style sheet is used to specify 
  formatting for these tags, a fixed width sans serif font should be used. This 
  insures that the code is easily distinguishable from the rest of the text. It 
  may also be beneficial to set the style for &lt;pre&gt;&lt;/pre&gt; tags to 
  indent the text, to help separate code blocks from other structural HTML blocks. 
  The <a href="#boost-style-sheet">Boost Style Sheet</a> specifies formatting 
  for these tags.</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> &quot;Code&quot; includes variable names, function names, etc.</p>
<h3><a name="lists"></a>Lists</h3>
<p>Lists should be constructed as unordered (&lt;UL&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags), 
  ordered (&lt;ol&gt; and &lt;li&gt; tags) or definition (&lt;dl&gt; and &lt;DT&gt; 
  tags) lists in HTML. You use an unordered list when you need a collection of 
  items that don't have any kind of logical ordering, such as a list of data types 
  that are defined by the library and can be used for a template argument. You 
  use an ordered list when the collection of items must be grouped in a logical 
  ordering, such as when enumerating the steps that an action logically performs. 
  You use a definition list when the list consists of not only items that have 
  no logical ordering, but also contains definitions/descriptions/etc. of the 
  items. A good example of this is the function specifications as described in 
  <a href="structure.html">Documentation Structure</a>.</p>
<h3><a name="graphics"></a>Graphics</h3>
<p>Graphics should be used very sparingly, if at all. Graphic images greatly effect 
  the download time for many people, which can discourage users from reading the 
  documentation. If you need graphic images to help illustrate something in your 
  documentation consider supplying only a link to the image within the documentation, 
  instead of embedding it directly in the text. If an image is going to be included 
  in the text of the document you should specify the image's size in the &lt;img&gt; 
  tag, in order to allow the user's browser to optimize the formatting of the 
  text before the image is loaded.</p>
<h3><a name="non-breaking-spaces"></a>Non-breaking Spaces</h3>
<p>Non-breaking spaces (&amp;nbsp;) should be avoided in HTML text. Generally 
  there are more appropriate ways to format the document, such as using list constructs 
  or specifying indentation as a style attribute or in cascading style sheets.</p>
<h3><a name="style-sheets"></a>Cascading Style Sheets</h3>
<p>Cascading style sheets allow you to apply some advanced formatting styles to 
  an HTML document. More importantly, they allow you to change the formatting 
  in a single file and effect all pages using the style sheet. Instead of struggling 
  to produce a specific format in HTML it's often easier and more flexible to 
  specify the formatting in a style sheet.</p>
<h4><a name="boost-style-sheet"></a>Boost Style Sheet</h4>
<p>The concept of using cascading style sheets to format HTML is such a good idea 
  that it can be beneficial to apply this across the entire Boost site. Of course 
  we can't require this (if Boost were to require such trivia for submissions 
  it's likely that many programmers would be discouraged from contributing). However, 
  a &quot;standard&quot; Boost style sheet (http://www.boost.org/boost.css) is 
  supplied anyway, so that a contributer can quickly and easily produce clear 
  and consistent documentation that reflects a Boost &quot;brand&quot; if they 
  so choose. If, at a later date, it's decided to update the Boost &quot;brand&quot;, 
  it may be done in this single file and all documents using the style sheet will 
  automatically be updated.</p>
<p>The Boost supplied style sheet not only specifies styles for many standard 
  tags, it also specifies several style &quot;classes&quot;. A class is specified 
  for a given tag instead of being applied to all instances of a given tag type. 
  Below is a list of the classes specified in the Boost style sheet and a description 
  of when to use them:</p>
<dl> 
  <dt><b>index</b> Used for &lt;dl&gt; tags when writing index lists.</dt>
  <dt><b>page-index</b> Used for &lt;dl&gt; tags when writing page index lists.</dt>
  <dt><b>Footnote</b> Used when writing Footnote numbers.</dt>
  <dt><b>function-semantics</b> Used for &lt;dl&gt; tags when writing function 
    semantic lists.</dt>
</dl>
<h2><a name="templates"></a>Templates</h2>
<p>Instead of hand coding every HTML page, HTML "templates" can be used instead. 
  The list below provides links to templates that may be used when writing documentation 
  for a contribution to Boost. Links provided in these templates assume the files 
  will reside in the &quot;traditional&quot; directory hierarchy of <i>boost/libs/library/doc</i>. 
  They may need correcting if the file will reside in some other location.</p>
<p><b>Note:</b> Since these &quot;templates&quot; are just HTML pages simply clicking 
  on the links below will load the template in your browser. You will need to 
  use a browser specific method to download the files instead of loading them 
  into the browser (for instance, on most Windows browsers you can right click 
  on the link and select the appropriate command from the context sensitive menu).</p>
<ul>
  <li><a name="index-template"></a><a href="template/index.html">Index Page Template</a></li>
  <li><a name="overview-template"></a><a href="template/overview.html">Overview 
    Page Template</a></li>
  <li><a name="definitions-template"></a><a href="template/definitions.html">Definitions 
    Page Template</a></li>
  <li><a name="rationale-template"></a><a href="template/rationale.html">Rationale 
    Page Template</a></li>
  <li><a name="configuration-template"></a><a href="template/configuration.html">Configuration 
    Page Template</a></li>
  <li><a name="faq-template"></a><a href="template/faq.html">FAQ (Frequently Asked 
    Questions) Page Template</a></li>
  <li><a name="bibliography-template"></a><a href="template/bibliography.html">Bibliography 
    Page Template</a></li>
  <li><a name="acknowledgements-template"></a><a href="template/acknowledgments.html">Acknowledgments 
    Page Template</a></li>
  <li><a name="header-template"></a><a href="template/header.html">Header Page 
    Template</a></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>Revised 
  <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" S-Type="EDITED" S-Format="%d %B, %Y" startspan -->29 November, 2003<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="39371" -->
</p>
<p><i>&copy; Copyright <a href="mailto:williamkempf@hotmail.com">William E. Kempf</a> 
  2001. All Rights Reserved.</i></p>
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