RDoc::usage has gone

Ruby
1

Hi

RDoc::usage was removed from ruby at the beginning of 2008, and thus is
not present in Ruby 1.9.1:

Fri Jan 11 18:28:49 2008 Eric H.
* lib/rdoc/usage.rb: Removed.
* lib/getoptlong.rb: Update example to not use
lib/rdoc/usage.rb.

It was a very useful function that allowed documentation in rdoc format
to be programmatically output. I’ve been using it for displaying
extended information either after an OptionsParser help summary output
or as a replacement when OptionsParser’s output isn’t suitable. It’s
also very useful for other information-display reasons where you want
information in rdoc format to also be programmatically available to
avoid duplication.

It seems a shame that it has gone, especially as it is documented in the
pickaxe book (second edition) and is widely deployed.

What is a suitable replacement?

James

2

On Apr 1, 2009, at 14:52, James Ponder wrote:

displaying extended information either after an OptionsParser help
summary output or as a replacement when OptionsParser’s output isn’t
suitable. It’s also very useful for other information-display
reasons where you want information in rdoc format to also be
programmatically available to avoid duplication.

It seems a shame that it has gone, especially as it is documented in
the pickaxe book (second edition) and is widely deployed.

What is a suitable replacement?

There’s no reason you can’t take rdoc/usage.rb from RDoc 1, modernize
it and release it as a gem.