On 30/06/2010 12:24, Noel O'Boyle wrote:
> On 30 June 2010 12:16, Geoffrey Hutchison<ge...@geoffhutchison.net>  wrote:
>>> It would be useful if people could add at least a few lines to each
>>> format saying what it is and what it might be used for. This is
>>> particular true of the utility formats, which I still don't
>>
>> We *have* format documentation in the wiki. In particular, I tried to 
>> document many of the "utility" formats. No, not all, but there are bits here:
>> http://openbabel.org/wiki/Formats
>
> I guess these were automatically generated from the Descriptions also,
> right? I'll check for any modifications and then put that information
> back into the .cpp descriptions.

Geoff's pages are ok but would be better if
  - there was more content in the Descriptions
  - all the content including Additional Comments was there so that
    everything could be accessed from the command-line
  - there was a greater range of content type: examples etc. with
    appropriate formatting
  - it was easy to  keep up to date.

Noel's formatting is smarter but can I make some comments on the 
design? (Ref the SVGFormat description).

There is a school which thinks that the more white space there is, the 
easier it is to understand. But I don't like very open layouts and 
think the key is getting the grouping and the hierarchy of comments 
right. So I would give a bigger emphasis to the first comment line, 
and have it more closely associated with the the option letter.

The comment at the bottom about explicit hydrogen is what I would want 
in a Note box - "you've had the basic information, but have you 
thought about this?"

I think it would be better to put the examples (especially the one 
near the end) in a different typeface and layout - like the wiki. The 
kind of person who uses OB probably looks at examples first and then 
reads the rest when he doesn't understand them. We should try too keep 
the exposition logical, but make the examples stand out - so keeping 
everybody happy.

Chris


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