[postgis-devel] Issue 35 in postgis: Comments on Postgis Functions
Kevin Neufeld
kneufeld at refractions.net
Mon Jul 7 19:56:36 PDT 2008
Regina, Dane,
Yes, I agree that we should keep the issue around a bit so it stays on
our TODO list.
In my spare time, I've been working on coming up with a template we
could use for all the functions in the documentation. I still think
that having every function as a refentry is the way to go instead of the
current listitem we currently employ. I'm close ... just wrestling with
DocBook, trying to make it jump though hoops as I try to customize the
automatic generation of the TOC.
Unlike the multiple term issue you were having, the refentry tag also
permits having multiple function prototypes under the same refentry. So
the same refpurpose tag could be applied as function comments for all
overridden prototypes. The concept seems to work pretty well... it just
the silly TOC that has me tied up in knots.
Cheers,
Kevin
Obe, Regina wrote:
> Dane,
>
> Thanks. That would help. I've started to fix these as I go along
> adding examples.
>
> I don't know if we should get rid of issue 35 though. I think the
> intent is still the same its just the actual implementation may be
> different and I was looking at your python and your comments as
> guidelines of what is wrong with the documentation.
>
> Is there an issue with having more than one <term> in the
> varlistentry. The html xsl parse just seems to put in a , when
> forming the html so I assume its okay to do that.
>
> E.g. I changed Add Point entry to:
>
> <varlistentry>
> <term>ST_AddPoint(linestring geometry, point geometry)</term>
> <term>ST_AddPoint(linestring geometry, point geometry, position
> integer)</term>
>
> <listitem>
> <para>Adds a point to a LineString before point
> <position>
> (0-based index). Third parameter can be omitted or set
> to -1 for
> appending.</para>
> <programlisting>
> --guarantee all linestrings in a table are closed
> --by adding the start point of each linestring to the end of the line
> string
> --only for those that are not closed
> UPDATE sometable
> SET the_geom = ST_AddPoint(the_geom, ST_StartPoint(the_geom))
> FROM sometable
> WHERE ST_IsClosed(the_geom) = false;
> </programlisting>
> </listitem>
> </varlistentry>
>
> I was next going to attempt to write a postgis_comments.xsl (finally I
> have a use for this xslt pocket book I have lying around :)) . I
> haven't done that yet though and not sure I'm the best person
> to attempt that.
>
> Thanks,
> Regina
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* postgis-devel-bounces at postgis.refractions.net
> [mailto:postgis-devel-bounces at postgis.refractions.net] *On Behalf Of
> *Dane Springmeyer
> *Sent:* Monday, July 07, 2008 1:59 PM
> *To:* PostGIS Development Discussion
> *Subject:* Re: [postgis-devel] Issue 35 in postgis: Comments on
> Postgis Functions
>
> Regina and Paul,
>
> I agree that a python script dependency for this step isn't ideal, and
> I'm in no way committed to the idea. It was simply an easy way for me
> to start working on the task, and I was not anticipating its
> consideration as a dependency.
>
> I propose we close this issue 35 as invalid and cook up another one
> based on Regina's sweet plan. How does that sound?
>
> More comments below...
>
>
> On Jul 6, 2008, at 1:57 AM, Obe, Regina wrote:
>
>> Paul,
>> You must have been reading my mind when you selectively picked this
>> one and the proj one to not comment about.
>>
>> Regarding this I have been looking at Dane's submission and as Paul
>> mentioned, off list, its not good to add any more dependencies than
>> we need to. This would require adding Python and Python's pgsql
>> library to use his source.
>
> Yes, it requires Python and the Psycopg2 driver as well as an existing
> db to match function names against (due to variable argument syntax).
>
>>
>> My main gripe with it is that it requires a postgis_template db to be
>> loaded to build the comments. It seems the main reason for that is
>> to look up the arg signature in the procname which would seem to be
>> unnecessary if our argument list in the documents could be mapped to
>> the postgresql function signature.
>
> Exactly. It could easily be modified to match against an xml file (or
> internal python data type) that stores the exact function names and
> arguments, but having the docs more closely match the actual function
> definitions would be ideal.
>
>>
>> In many cases they do or almost do. But we have cases like
>>
>> ST_MakePolygon(linestring, [linestring[]])
>>
>> which if we changed to
>>
>> ST_MakePolygon(linestring geometry, linestrings geometry[])
>> ST_MakePolygon(linestring)
>>
>> would work.
>>
>> the only issue I can think of are these functions with multi-signatures
>> ST_AddPoint(linestring, point, [<position>])
>>
>> I personally would prefer see it listed twice as
>> ST_AddPoint(linestring geometry, point geometry)
>>
>> ST_AddPoint(linestring geometry, point geometry, position integer)
>>
>> since I'm not convinced non-programmers don't find that nomenclature
>> confusing.
>>
>> then I'm thinking we can generate the postgis_comments.sql.in from a
>> simple
>>
>> postgis_comments.xsl file that parses the postgis.xml thus not
>> needing another dependency.
>>
>> Although I could very well be trivializing the simplicity of this.
>>
>> Does anyone have issues with me changing the doc accordingly.
>>
>
> This sounds excellent. I'd be happy to help with this renaming if it
> is needed.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Dane
>
>
>
>
>> Thanks,
>> Regina
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> *From:* postgis-devel-bounces at postgis.refractions.net
>> <mailto:postgis-devel-bounces at postgis.refractions.net> on behalf of
>> codesite-noreply at google.com <mailto:codesite-noreply at google.com>
>> *Sent:* Thu 7/3/2008 5:47 PM
>> *To:* postgis-devel at postgis.refractions.net
>> <mailto:postgis-devel at postgis.refractions.net>
>> *Subject:* [postgis-devel] Issue 35 in postgis: Comments on Postgis
>> Functions
>>
>> Issue 35: Comments on Postgis Functions
>> http://code.google.com/p/postgis/issues/detail?id=35
>>
>> Comment #2 by pwramsey3:
>> (No comment was entered for this change.)
>>
>>
>> Issue attribute updates:
>> Labels: -Type-Defect Type-Enhancement
>>
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