XML Documentation: what good is it?

[Bob Rundle]

I've been looking at the XML documentation for C# code. I've put in a
number of <summary>, <remarks>, <param> tags and used the /doc switch to
create an XML file.

What now?

I was expecting to have a style sheet or some other mechanism to present the
documentation. I was also expecting to have the summary and params show up
in IntelliSense.

Does anyone know where this is going? Is this one of those features that is
half implemented and I need to wait for VS2005?

Regards,
Bob Rundle

 

[Mattias Sjögren]

Bob,

What now?

There's a "Build Comment Web Pages" command on the Tools menu that you
can use. You should also look at NDoc at http://ndoc.sourceforge.net

I was also expecting to have the summary and params show up
in IntelliSense.

That should work.

Does anyone know where this is going? Is this one of those features that is
half implemented and I need to wait for VS2005?

AFAIK the feature hasn't changed much in VS 2005.



Mattias

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

I've been looking at the XML documentation for C# code. I've put in a
number of <summary>, <remarks>, <param> tags and used the /doc switch to
create an XML file.

What now?

I was expecting to have a style sheet or some other mechanism to present the
documentation. I was also expecting to have the summary and params show up
in IntelliSense.

You can build documentation pages from it with NDoc
(http://ndoc.sf.net). If you give it the same name as your assembly
(but replacing .dll with .xml) and have it in the same directory as
your assembly, it will work with intellisense.

 

[Bob Rundle]

Jon

Thanks for the help. Indeed, as soon as I got the .xml file in the same
directory with the assembly, intellisense started working

I'm working with a group that wants to use Doxygen. However with the good
editor support for the XML Documentation in C#, I going to try to convince
them to use XML Documentation for the C# code.

It's a pity the XML Documentation only works for C#.

Regards,
Bob Rundle

 

[Bob Rundle]

Thanks. The "Build Comment Web Pages" was the missing piece.

 

[Daniel O'Connell [C# MVP]]

It's a pity the XML Documentation only works for C#.

Now, VS2005 should help with that, .

As for XML comments in vb, there are some third party tools(and maybe an
unsupported ms one, I forget) to add it to vb. Just google for them.