There are a lot of great tools for easy code documentation. But sometimes it is difficult to choose the right tool from a long list of options. This article will not tell you which tool to use, but it will provide you with a list of criteria that will help you make a decision. It can be helpful whether you are evaluating commercial tools or building your own solution. These criteria should be collected prior to any evaluation activities
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Whatfix
Whatfix is a Digital Adoption Platform that allows you to create step-by-step walkthroughs that act as real-time software documentation by guiding employees through your software. If you already have a knowledge base, you can display your documentation in a self-help widget.
Whatfix is redefining how software documentation is displayed and consumed, with new content embedded directly within your software applications in forms such as interactive guidance, contextual walkthroughs, self-help FAQs, popup notifications and beacons, and more. The platform also allows you to measure the usage and effectiveness of your documentation with user analytics.
LiveEdu
If you are reading this, you must be thinking how a social project broadcasting can be a tool for code documentation? The answer lies in the term, “Video code documentation.”
You can broadcast or store your project work directly on Livecoding. By doing this, you will be able to easily allow your team members access to important sections of the project. There are multiple benefits for using Livecoding as a tool to document your code. Some of them are mentioned below:
Video documentation benefits in a nutshell
- It enhances pure text-written documentation and gives better context and understanding to the reader.
- Agile teams can easily keep track of the project changes.
- Technical writers can utilize the video code documentation to understand the project better.
- Developers can invest their saved time in implementing other project functionalities.
Read the epic piece written by Damian Wolf, “Why Developers Write Horrible Documentation and How to Solve It,” to understand the idea better.
Bit.ai
Bit.ai is a documentation collaboration platform that allows you to manage all of your documents in one place. It allows you to create notes, documents, and wikis, and you can manage your company’s documentation across teams or departments.
ProProfs
ProProfs knowledge base software is a knowledge management tool that lets you create searchable online FAQs and help docs. In addition, you can add videos, audio, images, and infographics to your documentation to make your software documentation more interactive and compelling.
Dropbox Paper
Dropbox Paper is an online document workspace that lets you organize and display text, media, and files all in one place. It’s a web-based tool, so it’s accessible as long as you have an internet connection. If you’re already a Dropbox user, you can create and edit documents without leaving Dropbox.
Tettra
Tettra is a tool for internal company use. It’s a wiki and knowledge management system that lets teams create content other employees can read and comment on. This tool is specifically built to work with Slack and features integrations with several other tools, including GSuite, Microsoft Teams, GitHub, and Zapier.
Tallyfy
Tallyfy is workflow and process management software that lets you capture and automate your company’s knowledge. This software offers the ability to see the status of your tasks, and it is built to integrate into many other systems like Slack or Gmail. It also automates the process of tracking document changes.
GitHub
GitHub is a cloud-based website and service that stores code and helps developers control and track changes through a version control system called GIT to host and review code. In addition to their repository, they offer GitHub Pages, a website hosting service that takes files directly from a GitHub repository and runs the files through a process that creates a website. This feature gives developers an easy way to create software documentation in plain text or Markdown.
Doxygen
Doxygen is a great tool for generating documentation from source code. The tool is aimed at C++, but it can also be used with PHP, Java, Python, etc. With the help of Doxygen, you can create online HTML documentation. It can also be used to generate output in multiple formats, including Unix man pages, PostScript, etc.
The biggest advantage of using Doxygen is that you will have consistency throughout your source code documentation. It can also help you to generate code structure using the undocumented source files. All you need to do is configure it accordingly.
Edurolp, from Córdoba, Spain is using Doxygen to document his code! Check out the stream here.
Pandoc
Pandoc is not like other code documentation tools out there. It acts as a Swiss Army knife and enables a developer to quickly convert one markup format to another. If you like writing your own code documentation in markup, and quickly want to convert to another format, Pandoc is for you. It has a wide range of document support, including textile, reStrcuturedText, LaTex, ePUB, etc.
Moreover, it offers multiple markdown syntax extensions, including definition lists, tables, footnotes, etc. Check out the official page for a full list of supported extensions and document format.
Conclusion
CodeDoc is a collection of tools for generating and maintaining precise documentation of the design and implementation in object-oriented software. It includes class and interface documentation editors, a framework for organizing and navigating source code, and an extensive toolkit focused on building high quality technical documentation.