Has the XML Documentation been "forgotten" in VB.NET?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Don Wash
  • Start date Start date
D

Don Wash

Hi There!

In C# you can use /// to add comments that can produce XML documentation.
What about in VB????

Thanks,
Don
 
Don,

Any reason you send this to the C# newsgroup maybe you have a good reason,
however it gives me only the idea you only want to create a trolling thread.

Cor
 
Hi There!

In C# you can use /// to add comments that can produce XML documentation.
What about in VB????
Click to expand...

In VB.Net there's a number of addins that provide this, but as you've
seen it's not included in the current Visual Studio, now is the ability
to pick up custom documentation in Intellisense included.

Apparently these will be added to the next version of VS.
 
* "Don Wash said:
In C# you can use /// to add comments that can produce XML documentation.
What about in VB????
Click to expand...

From my FAQ (<URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/dotnet/faqs/>):

Adding tooltips in intellisense for VB.NET assemblies and creating HTML Help
documentation:

VS.NET takes the text shown in intellisense tips from an XML file that is
provided in addition to the assembly (for example, a DLL). The XML file
must have the same name as the corresponding DLL with ".xml" appended and
has to be placed in the same folder as the assembly (assembly "Foo.dll",
XML file "Foo.dll.xml").

The format of the XML file taken by VS.NET is specified here:

<URL:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/csref/html/vclrfprocessingxmlfile.asp>

For C#, VS.NET creates this XML file automatically (compiler option "/doc").
For VB.NET, that's currently not supported, but this will be possible in VB
2005.

You can create the XML file by hand, but notice that this will take a lot of
time and it will be hard to keep the file up to date when parts of the
assembly change. It's much easier to use one of the tools listed below to
create the XML file. Tools like NDOC will take the XML file and create an
HTML Help file from the XML formatted data.

One easy way to create the XML file is to provide information for tooltips
as XML comments inside the VB.NET source files and then use tools like
VB.DOC to create the XML file that contains the data. Then you can copy
this file into the assembly's directory to provide information to VS.NET
that enables it to display tooltips, or you can create a help file. The
help file can be deployed with the assembly and can be used by other
developers who use the assembly as reference.

For VB.NET 2002/2003:

VB Commenter
<URL:http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/ide/>
-> "VB Commenter"

XML Documentation
<URL:http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/vb/>
-> "XML Documentation"

VBXC - VB.NET XML Commentor
<URL:http://vbxmldoc.tor-erik.net/>

NDOC (formerly DOC.NET)
<URL:http://ndoc.sourceforge.net/>

VB.DOC
<URL:http://vb-doc.sourceforge.net/>

<URL:http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/Workspaces/Workspace.aspx?id=112b5449-f702-46e2-87fa-86bdf39a17dd>

XML comments will be introduced to VB in version 2005 ("Whidbey").

C# XML comments:

C# Programmer's Reference -- Recommended Tags for Documentation Comments
<URL:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/csref/html/vclrfTagsForDocumentationComments.asp>
 
Jochen,
Interesting suggestion.

I would prefer '@ to '/, however that is such a personal preference I'm not
debating which is better.

However I am able to live with ''' as I view ''' as duplicate comment
characters, which happens to be what C# is with /// (duplicated comment
characters). Further they both happen to be a sequence of 3 characters.

FWIW I would prefer '@ to ''' also, however I am able to live with anything
as long as we get support for XML documentation! :-) VS.NET 2005 Beta 1
seems to have good support for it!

One of the tools that Herfried identified had an option to support '@ or
other sequence you choose (such as '/) however I found its support for it
was not the best. Also the version I tried had a couple quirks...

Just a thought
Jay
 
H Cor,

Sorry you feel that way. I'm posting to C# newsgroup because C# programmers
has access built-in documentation functionality and when they program with
VB.NET they will definitely look for a workaround, while native VB.NET
programmers who never used C# probably have no clue about XML documentation
that I'm talking about.

And seriously, why documentation support for VB.NET has been not included
but only for C#? I thought VS.NET is suppose to be one IDE for all languages
without discrimination?

I hope it helps.
Don
 
Thanks Rob

Don

Rob Windsor said:
VB 2005 will have native support for XML comments. For VB.NET 2003 you can
use the VBCommentor Power Toy.

http://www.gotdotnet.com/workspaces/workspace.aspx?id=112b5449-f702-46e2-87fa-86bdf39a17dd

--
Rob Windsor [MVP-VB]
G6 Consulting
Toronto, Canada


Don Wash said:
H Cor,

Sorry you feel that way. I'm posting to C# newsgroup because C# programmers
has access built-in documentation functionality and when they program with
VB.NET they will definitely look for a workaround, while native VB.NET
programmers who never used C# probably have no clue about XML documentation
that I'm talking about.

And seriously, why documentation support for VB.NET has been not included
but only for C#? I thought VS.NET is suppose to be one IDE for all languages
without discrimination?

I hope it helps.
Don
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Don,

Do not forget that the VBNet has background compiling while typing, which
makes the need for this kind of documentation "less" important.

The languages are maybe quiet the same, the IDE part definitely is not, the
developing teams went real in a different direction with that.

You are maybe right because I think that VBNet programmers expect the same
comfort from the C# IDE as it is with VBNet and probably it is visa versa
about the documentation system.

(Before it is flamed, especially on older computers is the C# IDE faster)

Cor


"> Sorry you feel that way. I'm posting to C# newsgroup because C#
programmers
 
Cor Ligthert said:
Do not forget that the VBNet has background compiling while typing,
which makes the need for this kind of documentation "less" important.
Click to expand...

Why? I don't see the connection at all. If I need to know what a method
does, just being able to compile code in the background isn't going to
tell me what I need to know. Could you explain why you see the two
things as being related?
 
Jon,

Back, because I have my comments ready however was thinking you would stay
somewhat longer away from this newsgroups.

Cor
 
Do not forget that the VBNet has background compiling while typing,
Why? I don't see the connection at all. If I need to know what a method
does, just being able to compile code in the background isn't going to
tell me what I need to know. Could you explain why you see the two
things as being related?
Click to expand...
Humans have intelisense as well, when I get a signal from the IDE that it is
right written I mostly look a little bit "less" to the documentation. When
it goes wrong than I go deeper in the documentation.

However maybe that is as well a typical difference from an Alpha and a Beta.

Cor
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

XML Help 7
How to split a combined XML document 2
Liquid Technologies Release Liquid XML Studio 2014 1
VB.NET XML Documentation Help 5
xslt and .net 1
Processing XML With C# and .NET 0
Processing XML With C# and .NET 1
How to return an XML document from a Web Service 5

Back
Top