another version of documentation category stuff

Robert Dodier writes:
> I've been tinkering with the documentation category stuff again
> and you can see the result here.
> http://maxima.sourceforge.net/misc/tmp-categories-html/maxima_89.html
> 
> At this point the output format has stabilized (i.e. I can't think of
> another way to do it) although it would be easy to tinker with
> superficial stuff like colors or the size of the category box or whatever.
> 
> Many core functions are not categorized. I would want to categorize
> all the core stuff before the category stuff appears in a release.
> Also, I'm pretty sure the existing categories and category assignments
> could be improved.
> 
> I am thinking about how this would work in a build. At present the
> categories are generated by running some scripts which rework
> the Texinfo files before texi2html and reprocess the texi2html
> output. (If someone wants to rewrite it in Lisp, or merge it into
> texi2html, please go right ahead.) The scripts will probably succeed
> only in a Unix-like environment. I don't know if that is a show-stopper:
> at present html files are generated and then bundled in the
> maxima-5.xx.yy.tar.gz distribution blob, so it is not necessary for
> Windows builds to generate the documentation.

In any case at present Windows package cam be built from distribution
tarball due to problems with perl 5.8 on mingw.

> The category stuff is really html-specific at present. I can't think
> of a useful way to make it work for the text-only .info output.
> (Sure, if you look at the .info output with the info browser,
> you can follow links, but not in the Maxima describe system.)
> I guess it could work in TeX output but I haven't tried it and I'm
> pretty sure it would require more work. For info and TeX output
> I'm inclined to just suppress the category stuff.
> 

IMHO html only categories would be enough for time being.

> The category stuff is on the category-tagging-branch in CVS.
> (Only doc/info files have this branch.)
> 

I have some questions regarding contents of sample maxima_89.html
What is that difference between "Global flags" and "Global variables"?
Almost all global variables (with few exceptions) in current Maxima 
manual are subdivide into two classes "Option variable" and "System 
variables". The categories system for global variables in maxima_89.html
is not quite clear to me: Global flags, Global variables, Display 
variables, Translation flags, Translation variables.
Why these very classes?

But in general categories looks very nice.
Thank you for your work on the subject.

Regards,

Vadim

-- 
      Vadim V. Zhytnikov

       <vvzhy at mail.ru>
      <vvzhy at netorn.ru>