[comp.lang.c] Self-documenting source code

gg10@prism.gatech.EDU (GALLOWAY) (11/13/90)

Is anyone aware of any packages or systems which extract documentation
for use in troff-format man pages or latex documents directly from the
C source code?

I am thinking along the lines of a token based system of embedding keywords
nto comments which are extracted some sort of parser.

One use would be to extract descriptions and prototypes for library functions.
It would be a lot easier to ensure that the documentation is up to date if
it is kept close to the actual code.

Any thoughts or pointers would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Greg Galloway
Georgia Institute of Technology

jamiller@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com (Jim Miller) (11/15/90)

>Is anyone aware of any packages or systems which extract documentation
>for use in troff-format man pages or latex documents directly from the
>C source code?
>
>I am thinking along the lines of a token based system of embedding keywords
>into comments which are extracted some sort of parser.
>
>One use would be to extract descriptions and prototypes for library functions.
>It would be a lot easier to ensure that the documentation is up to date if
>it is kept close to the actual code.
>
>Any thoughts or pointers would be appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Greg Galloway
>Georgia Institute of Technology
>----------

awk (or nawk) is a very useful package that will do what you want :-)

Really, very little work is needed, and you can improve it as you wish.


   jim miller
   jamiller@hpmpeb7.cup.hp.com
   (a.k.a James A. Miller; Jim the JAM; stupid; @!?$$!; ... )
   Anything I say will be used against me ...
   But my company doesn't know or approve or condone anything of mine here.