Very little thing here…the much-asked-for single long page of VEX functions - as of 8.0.425 anyway - they are slammed up all the way on the left hand side of the help page - sort of collides with that side and makes it harder to read. Certainly less attractive, anyway. Can we get a very slight little jog inward just to break it up a bit?

Page is much appreciated, btw…

Thanks,

J.C.

sure, we will look at it. Thanks

Yes, this is starting to be a lot more useful now.
Thanks for the on-going effort!
At the moment though, I'm still using the old vex html pages (which I've kept around from the last 7.0 version). Here's just a couple of reasons why:

1. More often than not, I'm writing VEX code *outside* houdini. The form that “writing code” typically takes while inside a houdini session, is VOPs. But then I don't need to refer to the VEX library that much (if at all) when manipulating VOPs.
For me, having a standalone version of “The VEX Language” outside Houdini, that I can look at using the browser of my choice, without being forced to fire up the whole app just to check on a couple of functions, is invaluable.

2. I know you are aware of this and it's still being worked on but, at the moment, there are so many functions with entries like this one:
vector shadowmap(string arg1; vector arg2; vector arg3; vector arg4; vector arg5; float arg6; float arg7; float arg8; …)
where you only get the number and type of the arguments but no indication as to *what* the arguments represent, that it makes the reference (in its *current* state) useless.

I think what's happening to the online help is all good stuff, and it's slowly becoming a very powerful reference for many, many things, so kudos to the DOC team!

But in the particular case of VEX, I think there are some very strong arguments in favour of producing and maintaining a standalone reference for the “Vex Programming Language” which, by virtue of being just that, has documentation needs that are quite different from “Using Houdini”. Perhaps such a standalone version (not much fancier than what we used to have) can be simply linked to from the online docs.
Right now, the feeling I get from using the embedded documentation, is that a bomb went off in the old docs and scattered bits and pieces a million miles appart from each other… and all the bits that remained bled to death leaving behind nothing but “arg”… (just kidding!!)

So. In the specific case of VEX, I would like to vote in favour of “devolving” to the old format.

First off, let me apologize for taking so long to get the new OVP (One Vex Page) technology in there. No excuses, I was just dumb and let it drop off my radar.

As I mentioned in another thread, the problem with arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4 is that those signatures were either not in the old documentation or incorrect in the old documentation, so I wasn't able to “parse forward” the old argument names. The old help was the only place to get argument names, because the source code doesn't know about argument names (it just parses argument lists by position). So really, this is dependent on Mark finding time to create a table of signatures and argument names. I realize how sucky the arg1, arg2, etc. thing is, so I'll try to insert a task in his queue.

I don't see the margin problem in the latest internal builds, I may have forgotten to backport a stylesheet change to the Houdini 8 baseline. ops:

Mario: I'll try to make a standalone “VEX Language” reference that more closely approximates the old setup (i.e. I'll include or point to the change notes, compiler reference, etc. from the “one page”). I just want to double-check you know you can access the VEX help outside Houdin by pointing Firefox at $HFS/mozilla/help/content/vex/vex_all.html (the One Page) or $HFS/mozilla/help/content/vex/vex.xml (the top page of the VEX XML help).

mchaput
Mario: I'll try to make a standalone “VEX Language” reference that more closely approximates the old setup (i.e. I'll include or point to the change notes, compiler reference, etc. from the “one page”).

Thank You!
(and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who would deeply appreciate your efforts )

mchaput
double-check you know you can access the VEX help outside Houdin by pointing Firefox at $HFS/mozilla/help/content/vex/vex_all.html (the One Page) or $HFS/mozilla/help/content/vex/vex.xml (the top page of the VEX XML help).

Ah yes. Good to know.
To be perfectly honest though, I hadn't even looked around for it because its contents are formatted in the same way as the internal version, being as it's the same page and all.
But point taken about the browser flexibility, thanks.