# Rdoc with hyperlinks

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rdoc-with-hyperlinks/98641>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 17, 2006, 6:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rdoc-with-hyperlinks/98641 "2006-07-17T06:21:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lstrecv)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2006, 6:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rdoc-with-hyperlinks/98641/1 "2006-07-17T06:21:18Z")

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More often than not, I find when browsing rdoc, that I need to see the  
full source to answer questions - not just the excerpt.

It would be great if the file references in html rdoc could be  
hyperlinks to the file location - not just plain text.

I took a look at rdoc source but couldn’t figure out how to make this  
patch. Could anyone help me out?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lstrecv)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 3:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rdoc-with-hyperlinks/98641/2 "2006-07-18T15:40:34Z")

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removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote:

> More often than not, I find when browsing rdoc, that I need to see the  
> full source to answer questions - not just the excerpt.
> 
> It would be great if the file references in html rdoc could be  
> hyperlinks to the file location - not just plain text.
> 
> I took a look at rdoc source but couldn’t figure out how to make this  
> patch. Could anyone help me out?

In general, you should not rely on knowledge of the source code to  
understand how a library works, because the library writer reserves  
the right to change the behavior of things that are not specified in  
the documentation.

–Ken B.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lstrecv)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 5:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rdoc-with-hyperlinks/98641/3 "2006-07-18T17:09:06Z")

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Ken B. wrote:

> In general, you should not rely on knowledge of the source code to  
> understand how a library works, because the library writer reserves  
> the right to change the behavior of things that are not specified in  
> the documentation.

Ken - I certainly agree in theory. However, in practice, that is often  
the only way to understand most Ruby libs. Ruby, as wonderful as it  
is, has not reached the maturity where its libs come with stable,  
complete documentation.

Check out libs like SOAP4R. The source _is_ the documentation.

Also, I would find linking to the source useful for libs which we are  
developing in house.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lstrecv](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lstrecv)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rdoc-with-hyperlinks/98641/4 "2006-07-18T17:22:36Z")

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removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote:

> It would be great if the file references in html rdoc could be  
> hyperlinks to the file location - not just plain text.

I do this with my libraries. See this rdoc page:

```
http://phrogz.net/RubyLibs/OWLScribble/doc/index.html

```

which has a link to its own source file, and thus is self-documenting  
on how to create documentation links to yourself. 🙂