Auto-Documentation Benefits
One of the benefits of auto-documentation
tools is that reference information is located where it belongs: in
the source code. It is not separated from the code in a FrameMaker book
that technical writers must constantly maintain through every whim of
the software engineer's ordering, adding, and deleting of arguments.
Those things are taken directly from the declarations and definitions.
It's automatic, and code references in the published documentation are
never out of sync with the code, providing that the tool is run against
the code at code freeze or other applicable points in time.
As was mentioned, auto-documentation tools
can generate documents that have accurate code prototypes, but dont
generate code examples or prolific explanations. However, the theory
is that if the technical writer isnt spending their time keeping
the syntax up to date, they will have more time to generate the code
examples or prolific explanations, which they would have to do anyway.
Open-Source tools compliments of Voyant Technologies, Inc. and Glenn C. Maxey.
01/13/2003
TP Tools v2-00-0a
# tpt-hug-02