The idea of DOC++ is to provide a tool that supports the programmer for writing high quality documentation while keeping concentration on the program development. In order to do so, it is important, that the programmer can add the documentation right into the source code he/she developes. Only with such an approach, a programmer would really write some documentation to his/her classes, methods etc. and keep them up to date with upcoming changes of code. At the same time it must be possible to directly compile the code without need to a previous filter phase as needed when using e.g. cweb. Hence, the only place where to put documentation are comments.

This is exactly what DOC++ uses for generating documentation. However, there are two types of comments, the programmer wants to distinguish. One are comments he/she does for remembering some implementational issues, while the others are comments for documenting classes, functions etc. such that he/she or someone else would be able to use the code later on. In DOC++ this distingtion is done via different types of comments. Similar to JavaDoc, documentation comments are of the following format

• /** ... */
  
• /// ...

where the documentation is given in ... . Such comments are referred to as DOC++ comments. Each DOC++ comment generates a manual entry for the next declaration in the source code.

Now, let's consider what ``high quality'' documentation means. Many programmers like to view the documentation online simply by klicking their mouse buttons. A standard for such documents is HTML for which good viewers are available on almost every machine. Hence, DOC++ has been designed to produce HTML output in a structured way.

But have you ever printed a HTML-page? Doesn't it look ugly, compared to what one is used to. This is not a problem for DOC++ since it also provides LaTeX output for generating high quality hardcopies.

For both ouput formats, it is important that the documentation is well structured. DOC++ provides hierarchies, that are refelected as sections/subsection etc. or HTML-page hierarchies, respectively. Also an index is generated that allows the user to easily find what he/she looks for.

As C++ and Java are (somewhat) object-oriented languages, another type of hierarchy is introduced, namely class hierarchies. The best way to read such a hierarchy is by looking at a picture of it. Indeed, DOC++ automatically draws a picture for each class derivation hierarchy or shows it with a Java applet in the HTML output.

An additional goody of DOC++ is its ability to generate a LaTex typeset source code listing for C/C++ code.