Add "Getting into Scaladoc Development" blog post

Author: felixmulder

blog/_posts/2016-03-17-getting-into-scaladoc-dev.md

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+---
+layout: blog
+post-type: blog
+by: Felix Mulder
+title: Getting into Scaladoc Development
+disqus: true
+---
+
+Over the past months I've been working on the new Scaladoc - and it's coming
+along nicely. Together with
+[@heathercmiller](http://twitter.com/heathercmiller) and
+[@vladureche](http://twitter.com/vladureche) we've overhauled the overall look
+of Scaladoc as well as having added a bunch of useful features - like complete
+member search!
+
+With the new Scala Center recently announced, one of the things discussed has
+been how to lower the entry barrier on important open source projects. This blog
+post aims to do exactly that for Scaladoc. There are a lot of things we want
+to do with the docs - and we'd love help! If that piques your interest - read on.
+
+## Scaladoc for 2.12.x ##
+The new major version of Scala is scheduled for later this year, and currently
+its doc tool generates sites like this one:
+
+![Scala Collections](http://i.imgur.com/TOkD4JF.png)
+
+The new search functionality allows you to not only look for so called
+"top-level entities" (`class`, `trait`, `object` and `package`) but members like
+methods and even `val` and `var`s. The new search is not at all taxing, on a
+big library like the collections - the results are shown almost
+instantaneously. Nevertheless, we've got a progress bar showing you something's
+actually happening:
+
+![Scala Collections](http://imgur.com/jLxcRpx.png)
+
+## How does Scaladoc work? ##
+The Scaladoc tool is quite easy to understand - there are basically three things
+that happen once you've specified what you want documented:
+
+1. Scaladoc compiles the sources using the first step of the compiler (the
+   frontend). This will fill a tree structure known as `Universe` with all the
+   information about the sources (classes, members, doc string etc).
+
+   **See:** [DocFactory.scala](https://github.com/scala/scala/blob/2.12.x/src/scaladoc/scala/tools/nsc/doc/DocFactory.scala)
+
+2. Copy all needed assets to out location (i.e. scripts and CSS-files)
+
+   **See:** [HtmlFactory.scala](https://github.com/scala/scala/blob/2.12.x/src/scaladoc/scala/tools/nsc/doc/html/HtmlFactory.scala).
+
+3. Traverse the `Universe` tree and for each top-level entity create an
+   HTML-page using the `Entity` class.
+
+   **See:** [Entity.scala](https://github.com/scala/scala/blob/2.12.x/src/scaladoc/scala/tools/nsc/doc/html/page/Entity.scala)
+
+The bulk of these steps are carried out inside the `HtmlFactory` class in
+[HtmlFactory.scala](https://github.com/scala/scala/blob/2.12.x/src/scaladoc/scala/tools/nsc/doc/html/HtmlFactory.scala).
+Have a look there for a more complete overview.
+
+## How do I generate the docs? ##
+
+Simple:
+
+```bash
+$ git clone [email protected]:scala/scala.git && cd scala
+$ ant docs # "ant docs.lib" if you just want the standard library
+```
+
+## Where to begin ##
+
+The markup of the entity page is defined in
+[Entity.scala](https://github.com/scala/scala/blob/2.12.x/src/scaladoc/scala/tools/nsc/doc/html/page/Entity.scala).
+If you're looking to change the HTML that's where you will want to look first.
+
+If you want to add some static asset, remember that `HtmlFactory` needs to copy
+it to the destination. So be sure to add your new resource to `libResources` in
+[HtmlFactory.scala](https://github.com/scala/scala/blob/2.12.x/src/scaladoc/scala/tools/nsc/doc/html/HtmlFactory.scala).
+
+All the current static assets are located in the
+[lib](https://github.com/scala/scala/tree/2.12.x/src/scaladoc/scala/tools/nsc/doc/html/resource/lib) directory.
+That's where you'd want to put new things (it is also where `index.js` etc live!)
+
+**How can I see my changes?** You have two options, if you changed the markup -
+you'll need to regenerate the docs:
+
+```bash
+$ ant docs.clean && ant docs
+```
+
+When the changes are to scripts or style sheets I use a small `Makefile` in the
+root of the project. This makefile will simply copy the resources to the same location
+as the generated docs:
+
+```make
+all:
+    cp src/scaladoc/scala/tools/nsc/doc/html/resource/lib/{index.css,index.js,template.css,template.js,diagrams.css,diagrams.js} build/scaladoc/library/lib/
+```
+
+Regenerating the docs all the time is a pain - if you just want to generate
+them for a single file, do this:
+
+```bash
+$ ant quick.bin
+$ build/quick/bin/scaladoc path/to/source/File.scala
+```
+
+Lastly, before you open your pull request - test your changes!
+
+```bash
+$ ant test.scaladoc
+```
+
+## Where to really begin ##
+
+There's still a lot of things to do before this can be considered release ready.
+Here's a laundry list of things we need to do:
+
+* General
+    - Async all the things! We should be able to parallelize the generation of
+      the doc pages
+    - CSS cleanup! There are a lot of things not necessary anymore, these could
+      simply be deleted
+* Mobile, the docs look decent on mobile - but there's still a ton to do!
+    - Landscape kills some of our layout
+    - There is no good package overview (list on the right) - ideas welcome!
+* Desktop
+    - Keyboard navigation on entity pages (i.e. between members)
+    - Better keyboard navigation on search results
+    - Minor layout issues
+    - Showing existence of companion `class`/`trait`/`object` (maybe *"You
+      won't believe who* `Companion object Boolean` *is going home with
+      tonight!"*)
+
+The full list of ideas and things to do can be found on
+[scala-dev](https://github.com/scala/scala-dev/issues/84). Comment on the issue
+or reach out to one of us (@felixmulder, @heathermiller, @vladureche) on the
+[scala/contributors gitter](https://gitter.im/scala/contributors) if you're
+interested in knowing more!