****** protoman.doc/protoman ******************************************

   NAME

	ProtoMan - Generate prototypes from and for C source. (V37)

   SYNOPSIS

	protoman FilePats/A/M,O=Outfile/K,AP=Append/S,DB=Database/K,
	         Lines/S,Static/S,BufSize/K/N

   FUNCTION

	Protoman was designed to scan C source files and produce
	prototypes.  It will also keep track of multiple prototype
	files in a main database for use with mutliple source file
	projects.

   INPUTS

	FilePats/A/M - Any positive number of files or file paterns.
	Outfile/K    - A file to output the prototypes to, if not
	               supplied they will goto stdout.
	               NOTE: this option will override the database
	                     option
	Append       - Append to the file specified in Outfile. If this
	               is not present the outfile will be truncated.
	Database     - Use a database for storing prototypes.  This will
	               store all prototypes in a database they will be
	               stored in C parsable format.  See NOTES for more
	               details.
	Lines        - Generate line comments for each prototype. eg:
	               /*    34 */ int main (int argc, char **argv);
	               /*    72 */ int cleanup ( struct Globals *globals );
	Static       - include statically declared functions in prototype
	               file.  This doesn't seem all that useful but I am
	               sure somebody needs it.
	BufSize      - The number of bytes used for I/O buffers when reading
	               and writing files.  The default is 2048, which seems
	               to be the fastest.
   RESULT

	The program will return 0 on success, or in most cases (all except
	user break) 20 for failure.  It should give some decent indication
	of what went wrong if something does.

   EXAMPLE

	protoman O=protos.h file1.c file2.c
	protoman database=protos.h c/#?.c newc/#?.c lines

	or for a makefile maybe:

	srcs=file1.c file2.c file3.c [...] file49.c file50.c

	protos.h: $(srcs)
		protoman database=$@ $?

	(in smake $? stands for all out of date dependent files.)

   NOTES

	The main reason for using this program instead of, for example, what
	SAS/C supplies is the database capability.

	The database is a single file that Protoman keeps track of all
	prototypes for all the files that have ever been passed to it.  If
	a new file is passed to protoman it is added.  If a file is given
	that is already present it is replaced.

	The need for a delete is probably there but not very intense.  The
	main use for this is in projects and will probably be in a makefile.  
	So a quick option would be in your clean: ie.

	clean:
		delete protos.h

	The file will be regenerated from scratch then.

	Protoman seems to be reasonably fast on my 68030 system, a project
	containing 39 C files totaling  324k is processed in about 17 seconds
	for a full update. For a single file to be processed with this same
	database it takes app. 5 seconds. (the database is 20k)

   HISTORY

	V37.3 - (14feb93) Second Release.
	        Fixed parser bug, was not handling comments that occured
	        the next character after a brace ('}'),  also fixed
	        same bug for C++ comments.  Made some local states global
	        for the better handling of multiple files.  Now a single
	        file having parse errors should not effect others being
	        parsed.	        

	V37.2 - (12feb93) First Release.
		Fixed most obvious bugs.

	V37.1 - (10feb93) Created.
	        Converted  my getprotos source into handling a data base.
	        Added ReadArgs support and tweaked speed, fixed bug in
	        source with the handling of function pointer's as
	        a function argument.

   BUGS

	None known.

   DISCLAIMER

	This programs main purpose is to handle c source a very valuable thing
	and while it does NO writing to any source files, all errors cannot
	be anticipated.  Therefore, I claim no responsibility for the destruction,
	instruction or any othertion of anything this program may cause as a
	result of, but not limited to, its use.

   COPYRIGHT

	This program protoman and its documentation are:

	Copyright © 1993 Christian E. Hopps.  All Rights Reserved.

	Distribution rights of this version (37.3) are granted to the
	following people, services, and groups (ie. User groups):

	- Fred Fish for the Fred Fish disk collection.
	- The Internet as a whole.
	- Bix.
	- Compuserve.
	- Genie.
	- and any person or group not earning a profit from
	  its distribution.

	The right to distribute is only granted to the package as a whole,
	this includes the binary and documentation file.

	Freeware is a nice concept so don't abuse it.

   SEE ALSO
	Me:     Chirstian E. Hopps
	bix:    chopps@bix.com
	home:   chopps@ro-chp.UUCP (sycom.mi.org!ro-chp!chopps)
	school: chopps@emunix.emich.edu (may only be valid through 6/93)