Documentation generator

Short description: Software tool

A documentation generator is a programming tool that generates software documentation intended for programmers (API documentation) or end users (end-user guide), or both, from a set of source code files, and in some cases, binary files. Some generators, such as Javadoc, can use special comments to drive the generation. Doxygen is an example of a generator that can use all of these methods.

## Types of generation

Document generation can be divided in several types:

* Batch generation (generic technique)
* Text block correspondence (documents created based on pre-defined text blocks)
* Forms (forms for websites)
* Documentation synthesis:
* Documentation can be inferred from code
* Documentation can be inferred from execution traces[1]

Some integrated development environments provide interactive access to documentation, code metadata, etc.

## References

1. ↑ Zhang, Sai; Zhang, Cheng; Ernst, Michael (2011). "Automated documentation inference to explain failed tests". 2011 26th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2011). pp. 63–72. doi:10.1109/ASE.2011.6100145. ISBN 978-1-4577-1639-3. http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/mernst/pubs/test-documentation-ase2011.pdf.

## See also

* Comparison of documentation generators
* Template processor
* Static code analysis
* Literate programming
* Integrated development environment

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