GDNative: View custom docs from the editor.

[LennyPhoenix]

Describe the project you are working on

A Discord Game SDK wrapper for Godot, written in C using nativescript.

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project

Although, nativescript 1.1 gives us the ability to set class, method, signal and property documentation via nativescript_1_1_api->godot_nativescript_set_X_documentation, there is no way to view these docs other than calling CLASSNAME.get_X_documentation() in GDScript.

Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation

Allow the built-in script editor to display these custom-defined docs.

Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams

Here is a mockup using the GDNative example from the docs

Docs definition from C:

    godot_string string;

    api->godot_string_new(&string);
    api->godot_string_parse_utf8(&string, "<My class docs>");
    nativescript_1_1_api->godot_nativescript_set_class_documentation(p_handle, "Simple", string);
    api->godot_string_destroy(&string);

    api->godot_string_new(&string);
    api->godot_string_parse_utf8(&string, "<My method docs>");
    nativescript_1_1_api->godot_nativescript_set_method_documentation(p_handle, "Simple", "get_data", string);
    api->godot_string_destroy(&string);

Mockup of the docs in the editor: (Made in GIMP)

If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?

Not that I know of.

Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?

There is no way the add-on can interact with this as far as I know, that is the point of this proposal.

[jonbonazza]

I think a better proposal would be a way of creating and displaying custom.documentation in general, regardless of the specific scripting language.

[LennyPhoenix]

@jonbonazza I agree, I thought GDNative needs it more specifically as you can't just look at the source code (and therefore function prototypes) of a compiled library, making it harder to tell what everything does without external documentation. Maybe for GDScript, docstrings could be displayed for the class's documentation, I'm not sure about VisualScript or Mono/C# though

[Calinou]

I think a better proposal would be a way of creating and displaying custom.documentation in general, regardless of the specific scripting language.

In the master branch, this is already supported in GDScript: godotengine/godot#41095

GDNative will need a specific implementation of this feature.

[jonbonazza]

Hmm seems like the gdscript implentation in that pr is specific to gdscript. Bummer. I was hoping there could be some language agnostic mechanism to support this feature.

Oh well, if that's the case then yea, i guess this proposal makes sense being gdnative-specific.

[aaronfranke]

Thank you for this proposal! I'm closing this as a duplicate, in favor of proposal #8245.