1.1.3 documentation in PDF?
by Dennis Harrington · in Torque Game Builder · 06/13/2007 (5:22 pm) · 8 replies
As the title says, is it available somewhere? Either from GG or someone else? As much as I love the organization of the 1.1.3 documents, it is so incredibly slow and there's so much lag that I just hate using it. The TGB Reference is probably the most difficult to deal with and that's the one I use the most. Would it be possible to at least get the TGB reference in PDF format? I can't even use the older PDF document since I deleted the installers from pre 1.1.3 versions. ;(
Thanks in advance for any help.
Dennis
Thanks in advance for any help.
Dennis
#2
Thanks for the info, Matt.
06/13/2007 (6:59 pm)
I just checked it out and it is MUCH faster than the 1.1.3 documentation but all of the definition text is missing. I assume this is because it's still in beta? Once all the descriptive text is in the 1.5 framework it looks like it will be a lot faster and therefore more usable.Thanks for the info, Matt.
#3
Download open office (www.openoffice.org)
Open Writer.
Load up the documentation HTML files and then just save as a PDF (its built into open office).
Voila!
06/18/2007 (2:40 pm)
Here's a work around for ya.Download open office (www.openoffice.org)
Open Writer.
Load up the documentation HTML files and then just save as a PDF (its built into open office).
Voila!
#4
06/19/2007 (1:25 pm)
Thanks for the tip! I didn't realize there was a free tool to convert files to PDF. 
#5
Unfortunately what we realized was that using Open Office for that many docs was a bit unreliable (Open Office is a great open source program, though like many open source programs it is a bit clunky at certain things) and I found out the hard way that the Open Office .html converter was horrendous (well most doc program -> html converters are horrendous though Open Office was a bit worse).
So in short, Open office is a great program considering it's free and if you don't use it on a mass amount of docs... as for maintaining a giant doc base, it's definitely not ideal... and though converting to .pdf was only about 1-2 minutes per doc, multiply that (plus various specifics for bookmarking and formating that bumped this up to a max of 5-8 minutes) by all the TGB docs, I spent a good 2-3 hours every time we needed to release the docs (or do a test release and fix issues and re-convert).
For what you'd be using it for I'd say this is a good solution though :)
Hopefully I will be able to get all the features into our Doc Framework (.html based) that PDF offers with a reasonable amount of additional features.
06/19/2007 (5:11 pm)
Thanks for mentioning that Simon. All of our TGB docs (before the html format) were in Open Office format and we then purchased PDF Factory Pro to convert them to .pdf (though I'll note that the Open Office .pdf converter isn't bad for a free program, in fact not bad at all).Unfortunately what we realized was that using Open Office for that many docs was a bit unreliable (Open Office is a great open source program, though like many open source programs it is a bit clunky at certain things) and I found out the hard way that the Open Office .html converter was horrendous (well most doc program -> html converters are horrendous though Open Office was a bit worse).
So in short, Open office is a great program considering it's free and if you don't use it on a mass amount of docs... as for maintaining a giant doc base, it's definitely not ideal... and though converting to .pdf was only about 1-2 minutes per doc, multiply that (plus various specifics for bookmarking and formating that bumped this up to a max of 5-8 minutes) by all the TGB docs, I spent a good 2-3 hours every time we needed to release the docs (or do a test release and fix issues and re-convert).
For what you'd be using it for I'd say this is a good solution though :)
Hopefully I will be able to get all the features into our Doc Framework (.html based) that PDF offers with a reasonable amount of additional features.
#6
We are getting this worked on though :) In the end it will be a much easily maintainable solution, and once we get the standard of doing these types of doc internally inside the engine then it means all future changes and additions will become standard as well.
06/19/2007 (5:14 pm)
Also a note on the 1.5 reference... it is now completely auto-generated via Torques "auto doc system" that spits out a doxygen friendly format that spits out xml files that are parsed into our Doc Framework which generates our reference. The good points, auto-generated from usage strings, gets every single script accessible function... the bad points, we need to now dox everything via the usage strings (well that is enough to count as a few bad points lol).We are getting this worked on though :) In the end it will be a much easily maintainable solution, and once we get the standard of doing these types of doc internally inside the engine then it means all future changes and additions will become standard as well.
#7
06/20/2007 (12:12 am)
That indeed is great news :-) 
#8
Reading that made me cry inside. Bad memories.
I'm back on the forums, so that means I have free time ;)
06/26/2007 (11:53 am)
Quote:the Open Office .html converter was horrendous
Reading that made me cry inside. Bad memories.
Quote:we need to now dox everything
I'm back on the forums, so that means I have free time ;)
Torque 3D Owner Matthew Langley
Torque