Natural Docs
Natural Docs is an open source documentation generator for multiple programming languages. It analyzes source code comments to automatically create documentation in HTML format.
documentation-generator
source-code-analysis
multiple-languages
Natural Docs: Open Source Doc Generator
Automatically generates HTML documentation from source code comments for multiple programming languages, making it an essential tool for developers and teams
What is Natural Docs?
Natural Docs is an open source documentation generator that can automatically create documentation from commented source code. It supports multiple programming languages including C, C++, Java, Ada, Perl, PHP and more.
The key feature of Natural Docs is its ability to parse source code comments written in a subset of HTML called DocL (Documentation Language) and generate professional-looking HTML documentation from them. Developers write documentation comments directly in the code using DocL, and Natural Docs handles converting those comments into neatly formatted and interlinked HTML documentation pages.
Some key capabilities of Natural Docs include:
- Produces clean, navigable HTML documentation from source code
- Understands DocL formatted comments in code
- Supports C, C++, Java, Ada, Perl, PHP and more programming languages
- Handles documentation across multiple files/classes/modules
- Generates menus and navigation links automatically
- Open source software written in Perl
Natural Docs allows developers to write documentation and implementation in parallel, reducing time and effort to keep documentation in sync. The generated reference documentation pages have an intuitive linking structure to aid discoverability and navigation of the API documentation.
Natural Docs Features
Features
- Generates documentation from source code comments
- Supports multiple programming languages like C, C++, Java, Visual Basic, Python, etc
- Creates HTML documentation that is easy to navigate
- Allows customizing the look and feel of generated documentation
- Has built-in syntax highlighting for code examples
- Generates a function index and class hierarchy charts
- Searches documentation for keywords
- Integrates with source control systems like Git and SVN
Pricing
- Open Source
Pros
Automates documentation process
Documentation stays up to date with code changes
Good for documenting large code bases
Easy to use and integrate into projects
Open source and free to use
Cons
Limited WYSIWYG formatting capabilities
Steep learning curve for advanced customization
Not suitable for non-technical end user documentation
Limited support for diagrams and images in docs
Requires developers to write good comments in code
Official Links
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