Doxygen support within SlickEdit?

[joireman]

We use Doxygen (www.doxygen.org) to extract documentation from our
C/C++ code.    This tool also works for Java code and uses documentation
block similar to Javadoc for function definitions (i.e. /**  your comment here */).
Doxygen recognizes all Javadoc tags, HTML tags and includes many of its
own tags for documentation markup in comments.   Are there any plans to
integrate support for Doxygen into SlickEdit similar to the support for
JavaDoc?   

The reason I ask is the following.   SlickEdit appears recognize that you are in a Javadoc comment region by noticing the /** opening.  This does some helpful things

   1) It enables auto-completion of javadoc tags and
   2) It enables the HTML toolbar for some useful HTML shortcuts

However, this "context switch" can also be frustrating when trying to write
comments.  First, in this comment context an * is added at the beginning
of each new line.  Not a huge issue but significant for comment maintenance
as not all developers in our group are SlickEdit users.  (Note to self: work harder
on SlickEdit evangelism)  Second, when typing the comment the editor
performs some strange realignments/wrapping of lines that actually hinder
writing the comment.  I would like to be able to control the format of the
comment myself not have the editor decide for me where the words should
go, the goal being readability for both programmers reading code and for
the generated documentation.   Last, the auto-completion of tags is a
hindrance when using Doxygen as several Doxygen specific tags are
auto-completed to something completely different and incorrect by
the editor (ie. @par --> @param ).     

I do not know the extent of the use of Doxygen throughout the community
and those involved with SlickEdit, but I am interested in hearing the views
of others and whether there are any plans for supporting Doxygen more
fully when using SlickEdit.

Thanks,
Paul W. Joireman

[jbezem]

Especially when using V11, check the 'File Extension Setup...' for C/C++/Java. Several settings have been added, that may make your life easier or not, switch them off if not. Especially the tabs for 'Comments' and 'Comment Wrap' seem to be interesting for you. Most of what you 'complained' abaout, can be configured there.

As to the doxygen support in SE, maybe a SlickEdit rep can answer that.

HTH,

Johan

[ljstrickler]

Have you tried the GenComment macro set? I use it all the time to generate doxygen headers in my C programs and haven't had much problems with it. I use SE 10 and it works well. The automatic entering of most of the boiler plate comments is great. The version here is not the latest one he's released though (newest is about a month ago).

[aoehlke]

Gary, if you or another knowledgeable genComment guy are still monitoring this thread, please see my question
http://community.slickedit.com/index.php?topic=335.0

[ScottW, VP of Dev]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the question. We do support Doxygen...to the extent that it looks just like Javadoc. 

Seriously, we are planning to extend the functionality to encompass true Doxygen support. I think all we'd have to do is to set up the completions for the Doxygen tags and set up a command to process the Doxygen comments. I'm not sure if that will make it in v12 or not at this point.

The frustrating stuff you are talking about is Comment Wrapping (Tools > Options > File Extension Setup, select the Comment Wrap tab). It may take some time to get used to and find the most natural settings, but this feature will help you write comments without worrying about formatting. If, like me, your comments tend to be about the same width--I find that 50 characters is wide enough but doesn't cause your eyes to have to move a lot--then use the Fixed Width Setting. Automatic is useful if you use different width comments.  It will select a value for wrapping based on the longest multi-line paragraph in the current comment block.  Of course, you can shut if off it you just like to do it yourself. Eve then, you might turn on "Preserve width on existing comments", which will allow you to edit existing comments with word wrap set to the longest multi-line paragraph.

To turn off the asterisk in Javadoc, select the Comments tab and uncheck "Insert * for Javadoc comments.

--Scott