Code Documentation.
Automated.
Free, open source, cross-platform.
Doxygen is a widely-used documentation generator tool in software development. It automates the generation of documentation from source code comments, parsing information about classes, functions, and variables to produce output in formats like HTML and PDF. By simplifying and standardizing the documentation process, Doxygen enhances collaboration and maintenance across diverse programming languages and project scales.
Multiple output formats
Doxygen can generate documentation in various output formats, such as HTML, PDF (via LaTeX), Word (via RTF), and XML.
This flexibility allows developers to choose the format that best suits their needs or integrate the documentation into different systems.
Markdown
Markdown support in Doxygen allows you to combine the simplicity of Markdown with the powerful features of Doxygen for documenting code.
Next to Markdown, Doxygen supports many commands like \param,
\return, \brief, etc., to provide additional information about
functions, parameters, and return values.
C++
Doxygen provides robust support for documenting C++ code, recognizing the intricacies of the language and generating comprehensive documentation.
Next to C++, Doxygen also supports C, Python, PHP, Java, C#, Objective-C, Fortran, VHDL, Splice, IDL, and Lex.
Cross-referencing
Doxygen provides cross-referencing capabilities, allowing users to navigate between different parts of the documentation.
Doxygen generates hyperlinks to related elements, making it easy to explore the codebase and understand the relationships between different components.
Diagrams
Doxygen can generate graphical representations of class hierarchies and collaboration diagrams, providing a visual overview of the relationships between classes and functions.
Configuration
Doxygen provides a configuration file (Doxyfile) that allows users to customize the documentation generation process. You can control various settings, such as the output format, file inclusion/exclusion, and more.