Update of manual

+2 votes
asked Aug 31, 2014 in Closed bug by albert (3,520 points)
recategorized Jun 30, 2018 by albert
The manual as distributed shows version 5737, the current version of the software is 8004.

Are there differences between what is described in the manual and the current software version?

Will there be new documentation (soon)?

7 Answers

0 votes
answered Sep 8, 2014 by rmric (2,140 points)
selected Jun 29, 2018 by albert
 
Best answer

+1 on the update of the manual.

Maybe this is a place for thankful users to give back, if only the process of contributing would be made clearer/easier.

For that matter, could the plantumldoc LaTeX documentation source be made available as a SVN/git repo? It would make sending patches easier.
 

The web site is also lagging behind, could a wiki be helpful such that as features get requested on Q&A and then implemented, users may update the wiki, relieving the developers?

Cheers

commented Jun 29, 2018 by albert (3,520 points)
For that matter, could the plantumldoc LaTeX documentation source be made available as a SVN/git repo? It would make sending patches easier.

Not only the documentation but also for the code (currently the last, interim, release at the moment of writing 1.2018.08 though a newer beta version is present: 1.2018.09beta2).
0 votes
answered Sep 6, 2014 by albert (3,520 points)
I found the documentation package at the bottom of the page of http://plantuml.sourceforge.net/download.html
I downloaded this plantumldoc-8004.tar.gz and extracted it. I also checked the lgpl source code to see if (part of) the documentation was included in here / has been extracted from here, but I don't think this is the case as I could not find the word "Bob" in the java sources.
By means of java -jar plantuml.jar -charset UTF-8 *.tex I have been able to produce the graphs for the documentation after I created the files List.iuml and ArrayList.iuml
I've been able to generate the documentation (after small adjustments to the tex files) under Cygwin with lualatex and with xelatex (both running 3 times to get correct Contents table)

Changes I made / had to make (short description and a diff list):

Setting better date in the Manual (in principle this should be the date of the release (the release number is in the tex file):
diff -r documentation/PlantUML Language Reference Guide.tex documentation_org/PlantUML Language Reference Guide.tex
65,66c65
< \textit{Language Reference Guide,
< \today
---
> \textit{Language Reference Guide, January 23, 2011

Non supported commands, end package and end namespace, replaced with {} notation (as indicated on the website):
diff -r documentation/class.tex documentation_org/class.tex
451c451
< package net.sourceforge.plantuml #Snow {
---
> package net.sourceforge.plantuml #Snow
454c454
< }
---
> end package
467,468c467,468
< package foo1.foo2 {
< }
---
> package foo1.foo2
> end package
501c501
< namespace net.dummy #DDDDDD {
---
> namespace net.dummy #DDDDDD
507c507
< }
---
> end namespace
729c729
< namespace net.dummy #DDDDDD {
---
> namespace net.dummy #DDDDDD
735c735
< }
---
> end namespace

Corrected last input line of table:
diff -r documentation/colornames.tex documentation_org/colornames.tex
187c187,188
< & \\ \hline
---
>
> & & \hline

The & character has to be escaped when to be used literally:
diff -r documentation/skinparam.tex documentation_org/skinparam.tex
601c601
< You can force the use of a black\&white output using the
---
> You can force the use of a black&white output using the

Further differences (seen at first glance between the generated 8004 manual and the 5737 manual as downloaded from the website)
- sourceforge.jpg is missing in the documentation distribution (used in different paragraphs)
- looks like the rotate command does not work properly (no rotation, see paragraph about rotation)
- further some improvements regarding using newer features
- layout of some images has changed slightly
 

Still a description of other available commands would be much appreciated (so the might be used in e.g. doxygen).
0 votes
answered Sep 8, 2014 by plantuml (294,960 points)
First, sorry about the documentation beeing outdated.
We used to stop updating the LaTeX documentation, because it needs some extra works.
Now we are thinking about way to have a common source for both LaTeX documentation and Website.

We will put a news here when the new PDF file (and LaTeX source) will be ready...
commented Sep 8, 2014 by albert (3,520 points)
What kinds of ideas do you have for this.
A bit a biased suggestion: doxygen. The doxygen manual is also completely written with doxygen and some improvements are going on regarding support for plantuml.
+3 votes
answered Oct 2, 2014 by plantuml (294,960 points)
The PlantUML Language Reference Guide is back and up-to-date!

http://plantuml.com/PlantUML_Language_Reference_Guide.pdf

It should now be updated with the website.
commented Oct 3, 2014 by albert (3,520 points)
Thanks. I'm going to study it.
asked Oct 6, 2014 in Bug by rmric (2,140 points)
closed Oct 7, 2014 by rmric
Documentation of preprocessing/macros (8008)
commented Oct 9, 2014 by anonymous
hello,
i'm missing the following keywords at the documentation (all relating to sequence diagrams):
rnote over
hnote over
++
--
return

many thanks in advance
0 votes
answered Oct 7, 2014 by rmric (2,140 points)

Hi, I'm back again with more wishes of updates for the manual. Speaking of this thread, this bug may have to be reopened for better visibility.

Somewhere in the section 9 or section 10 of the manual, the sprite feature is missing. This is documented here http://plantuml.sourceforge.net/sprite.html (and working great!)

Another missing feature in the manual is the JCCKit charts and plot: http://plantuml.sourceforge.net/jcckit.html

Many thanks for the effort on documentation!

commented Oct 7, 2014 by plantuml (294,960 points)
Good ideas, we have added sprites in the PDF documentation.
However, we won't speak about JCCKit there, because this is not a real part of PlantUML.
But we have also added Salt features in this doc.

Many thanks to all for your corrections & suggestions!
commented Oct 8, 2014 by rmric (2,140 points)
Thanks for the update.

I understand about JCCKit. Nevertheless, could it be just mentioned in the manual that charts and plots can be done (with an external ref) ?

A minor detail about sprite in § 11.12 Examples: the line of the sprite definitions $bug/$printer are not wrapped in the PDF.
0 votes
answered Oct 8, 2014 by rmric (2,140 points)

The §1.6 Change arrow style may need (but not necessary) some more examples regarding message lost -x as discussed here.

Rem: both syntax -x and ->x seems to be allowed now.

[-> Bob
[o-> Bob
[o->o Bob
[x-> Bob

[<- Bob

[x<- Bob


Bob
->]

Bob ->o]
Bob o->o]
Bob
->x]


Bob <-]
Bob
x<-]

 

All this is all documented in pages Arrow and Inout.

 
0 votes
answered Oct 17, 2014 by rmric (2,140 points)

Hi,

The following @pause / @unpause / @append  "commands" for inline documenting are not documented yet. See this thread for syntax and examples :  http://plantuml.sourceforge.net/qa/?qa=1525/%40pauseuml-for-splitting-uml-code#a1639

Cheers

...