Cyclic documentation tools page

One commonly-reinvented wheel is a tool which extracts documentation for a library from specially formatted comments in the source code. One popular package to do this is DOC++. It works with source code in C, C++, or Java.

Documentation Tools Standards

Note that DOC++ and at least one other tool support the "javadoc" format, which specifies the syntax of the specially formatted comments. For more information and a copy of the javadoc specification, see the javadoc page mentioned below.

Example of DOC++ in action

The official DOC++ web page, mentioned below, is generated by DOC++ itself, and also contains examples.

Mailing lists and newsgroups

I'm not aware of mailing lists or newsgroups concerning DOC++, javadoc, or similar tools.

Downloading DOC++

I suppose we need to make an explicit disclaimer that DOC++ is not supported by Cyclic.

Licensing terms for DOC++ are somewhat confused. Most source files say that it is under the GNU General Public License and also say those who "intend to use DOC++ commercially on a regular basis" must contact the authors regarding payment (I can only guess that "commercial" here means "outside the scope of the GNU license"). The source file datahashtable.hh says "There is absolutely no right to redistribute this file without the explicite [sic] permission by the authour [sic]".

Download DOC++ from the DOC++ page mentioned below. It is available as C++ source code, and as executables for several platforms. Note that the source distribution does not contain installation instructions.

For more information

The official DOC++ page includes both introductory material and detailed information on using DOC++.

The javadoc page contains the javadoc specification, and also some thoughts about how you might use such a tool.