Eric Hodel wrote: > On Mar 27, 2007, at 23:37, Larry Fast wrote: > >> Is it possible to get Rdoc to generate information about >> Rakefiles? It seems that I can't ask it to parse files that don't >> have an extension. > > As a workaround, move logic you want documented out of the Rakefile. =begin How long do we have to keep working around flaws in programs that are most central to the Ruby experience? Why can't this be this fixed instead? Although it was written by Dave Thomas and friends, rdoc is not perfect[1]. If this were 1997 instead of 2007, I'd bet this issue would be fixed almost instantaneously. =end It is understandable that rdoc ignores such files when it regresses directories automatically. That is, when it is run with either (1) no command-line arguments or (2) command-line arguments which are directories. However, I think its file-extension based discrimination is implemented too strongly. So strongly, in fact, that it frustrates and alienates the user by counter-intuitively ignoring _explicitly_ specified command-line arguments. For example, when I run rdoc foo_bar I expect rdoc to parse the foo_bar file *indiscriminately* -- why does it care what file name I specify? I, the user, a human being no less, have stated explicitly that I would like it to parse that file... it should *not* ignore me! :-( Furthermore, rdoc does not operate on the standard input stream. I live in *NIX land, so it is reasonable for me to expect that rdoc would behave like a filter: cat foo_bar | rdoc At least, it should accept '-' as an identifier for the standard input stream: cat foo_bar | rdoc - In contrast, observe how newer tools (such as RedCloth) are indiscriminate to file extensions and play nicely with the standard input stream: % echo '*ruby*' | redcloth <p><strong>ruby</strong></p> % redcloth foo_bar # it doesn't care about file extension! :-) [1] http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/130465 and http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/211297 -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.