
Show HN: Create documentation websites from Markdown - jacec
https://github.com/jacted/docsgen/blob/master/README.md
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andrewshadura
But there's hotdoc:
[https://github.com/hotdoc/hotdoc](https://github.com/hotdoc/hotdoc)

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jacec
Took a quick look at hotdoc.

Seems like it has a lot of dependencies. (docsgen is just one file)

I didn't look into it too much, but it has a very large code base for
something that seems fairly simple (from my point of view...)

Could you explain why you would choose hotdoc over my tool, does it have some
extra features?

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andrewshadura
Does anyone care about dependencies as long as they're packaged or can be
installed automatically?

It's a real documentation system rather than just an HTML generator, which is
what docsgen seems to be. It supports syntax highlighting, search and DevHelp
generation. It maintains a database of symbols and lets you refer to them
instead of having to manually look up the link.

And there's also an optional component, hotdoc-server, to allow previewing and
editing documentation on-line.

Well, and it ships with lots of documentation.

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jacec
Maybe people dont care about dependencies, i do so i decided to use Go to make
a single file.

Because of the dependencies it seems like HotDoc only works on a server?
Docsgen has versions for Windows, Mac and Linux without the need to have a
server, virtual machine or stuff like that.

This is just the start of docsgen. I have planned code comment parsing,
versioning, multi language support and more stuff. Syntax highlighting is
almost finished for docsgen as well.

What i'm trying to build is a really lightweight solution that everyone can
use without having to setup a lot of things. Docsgen will have a focus on API
documentation rather then library documentation which HotDoc seems to focus.

~~~
andrewshadura
Also, why are you saying hotdoc works "on a server" only? What's "a server" in
your understanding?

By the way, hotdoc works on any platform where Python runs. In particular,
once you've got Python running, pip install hotdoc installs it for you even if
you don't have packages for your distribution.

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jacec
I was simply asking if it only works on a server. I was reading the
installation guide and it has command line installs for Fedora and Ubuntu so i
thought it was only for servers. Will pip also install the system-wide
dependencies?

As for API documentation vs Library documentation it just seems like HotDoc is
for Library documentation. (Even though it's the tastiest API documentation
system) From their examples they are just showing Library documentation sites?

Docsgen is inspired by API docs like DO and PayPal where you have text on left
and example request and response on the right. Example:
[https://developers.digitalocean.com/documentation/v2/](https://developers.digitalocean.com/documentation/v2/)

I have trouble finding examples of API documentation sites that uses HotDoc,
feel free to link some and i will check them.

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andrewshadura
Sure, pip installs either system-wide dependencies or, if you as it, installs
them into your home.

As for API, I now see what you mean, you use the term API is a different
meaning than I do (remote API vs local API), hence the misunderstaning. No, I
don't think hotdoc supports side-by-side documentation and examples at the
moment. I think it can be extended to do so, though.

