Introduction

Top Next

In short, Pascal Browser is a Windows application that can:

•	create a hyperlinked collection of HTML documents for your source code

•	help you understand and get an overview of your code

•	assist you in finding errors and anomalies in the source code

•	let new team members quickly get acquainted with the source code

•	create your own customized documentation

clip0011

The main window in Pascal Browser

Just as its sibling product Pascal Analyzer, Pascal Browser will parse the source code it finds and gather all sorts of information. This information is used to create the document collection that describes the source code. The most common use of Pascal Browser will probably be to create hyperlinked HTML documents.

This is a sample of a web page created by Pascal Browser:

clip0007

Sample web page (HTML) created by Pascal Browser

Pascal Browser has deep knowledge of the source code, and understanding of how different identifiers are linked to each other. This knowledge can be used to generate a full documentation, but also to:

•	display hyperlinked source code

•	display class hierarchies

•	display call chains

•	point out unused identifiers and other anomalies

Pascal Browser functions with Pascal/Delphi Compilers from BP7 and later:

•	Borland Pascal 7 (or earlier)

•

Delphi 1

•

Delphi 2

•

Delphi 3

•

Delphi 4

•

Delphi 5

•

Delphi 6

•

Delphi 7

•	Delphi 8 for .NET

•	Delphi 2005 for Win32

•	Delphi 2005 for .NET

•	Delphi 2006 for Win32

•	Delphi 2006 for .NET

•	Delphi 2007 for Win32

•	Delphi 2009 for Win32

•	Delphi 2010 for Win32

Although Pascal Browser does not run under the Linux operating system, it can still be used to analyze code written for Borland Kylix, which in essence is Delphi for Linux. Just make sure to select XFM as the file extension for form files and set a few conditional directives.

Pascal Browser parses your source code in the same way as the compiler. It builds large data tables in memory and when the parsing is finished, outputs an XML file. The documentation is created by merging this XML file with XSLT style sheets.

Be forewarned that Pascal Browser sometimes needs a lot of memory. The amount of memory needed is proportional to the number of code lines and modules in the examined project.

Projects

To generate documentation for a particular set of source code with Pascal Browser, you must first create a project. Do not confuse a Pascal Browser project with a Delphi project, they are completely different things. The project holds the options for how the code is handled, and lets you conveniently use separate options for different sets of source code.

Projects are saved as text files with the extension “pbr”, like for example a file with the name MyProj.pbr. The format of the files is equivalent to that of an INI file.

How to get started

It is very easy to get started with Pascal Browser. Just create a new project and select a main file, an output root folder and some other options. Then hit the Run-button and wait for the results.

A good piece of advice is to start with a small code base. Make sure that you do not include too much source code to start with. It will be easier to navigate in the results if it is not overwhelmingly large.

Evaluation version

The evaluation version is free to download and try out. There are a few limitations in the evaluation version:

•	identifiers starting with letters a, d, g, j, m, p, s, v (and in upper case) are not hyperlinked.

•	some identifiers are obfuscated in the generated documentation

•	some lines in the middle of source code listings are partly obfuscated

Special thanks to

- Borland, for giving us Delphi, the most productive programming environment ever

- Embarcadero/CodeGear, for continuing Borland's work

- JEDI Code Library (JCL), a great utility library for Delphi developers, see http://www.delphi-jedi.org/

- TDMWeb for hosting our web site, see http://www.tdmweb.com

- glyFX (http://www.glyfx.com); many of our graphical elements are from their excellent glyph collections. Highly recommended!

- Ozmosys for providing Knowledge Base, a software developer’s repository. Lets you organize and store important information, see http://www.ozmosys.net.au

- Inno Setup (http://innosetup.org/isinfo.php), a great utility to create powerful installation programs, we use it for all our applications