Is there away to comment the implementation of function in Doxygen - c

Iknow there similar questions to this,but I didn't find an answer that can solve my problem, I have Program composed of one Header file, that includes mutiple static variables and functions.
the variable are used in mutiple source file, and have then different meaning , the functions too are implementet in different way in each time . My question is how can my comment in the source file be sees in HTML doxygen file. like :
/*!<
function that does stuff
#param value representing the mean stuff
*/
double func(double* value){
FILE* inp =NULL; /*!< the file pointer of this function to write the result*/
.............................................//!* all this commments should be see in functiopn description
}
and by the I know that , if I open the source file in the documentation I'll see the comment , but I want to explain the roll of each function and how it doing its job!
thanks in advance for any help!

Here it is http://www.doxygen.nl/manual/docblocks.html#specialblock
If you just comment with // it won't appear on doxygen. Doxygen only parses comments starting with certain tokens, such as /** or /*!

Related

Documenting included header files in .c files with Doxygen comments?

I have noticed, that when using Doxygen to document a .c file, the list of includes in the given file is also included in the output, for instance:
https://agnix.sourceforge.net/documentation/api/bridge_8c.html
Now, what I typically do, is include some general comments before a given "include block" ("intro comments"), and then some specific comments on the same line as the include line:
...
/*
* The following includes are required for
* the code to compile:
*/
#include <stdio.h> // contains printf()
#include <netinet/in.h> // contains sockaddr_in
...
Is it possible to have these kinds of comments formatted for Doxygen, (either "intro comments", or "on same line" - hopefully both), such that I get them output in the final documentation for that .C file?
Essentially, for the above example, I'd get an output like this (screenshot is from manually hacked HTML, to get a mock-up of desired output):
(I guess, this could be seen as a somewhat of a "literal programming" approach)
If you want Doxygen recognizes a file to insert it in documentation, you should use
/** <- (this format is recognized by Doxygen)
* #file name_of_file.h
*
* #brief What is
*
* #author You
*
* #date 03/01/2023
*
* #par Put the title of the paragraph
* Write the content of the paragraph
*/
at the beginning of your header file (note: #file is mandatory).
Read also Doxygen guide

Basic UI Gtk with XML interfaces

I'm testing some GTK+ examples.
At some given function, a reference to some path of a XML file appears in
C code. It explains that the code in C is reading the XML content to
later compile it to be usable from the C code:
static void
example_app_window_class_init (ExampleAppWindowClass *class)
{
gtk_widget_class_set_template_from_resource (GTK_WIDGET_CLASS (class),
"/org/gtk/exampleapp/window.ui");
}
I can understand what is happening here, but not how is it reading the source XML? window.ui, in this case. Because the repo has no folder
as they mention (/org/gtk/exampleapp/).
So, in my function I expect to do something like:
static void my_style_window_class_init(MyStyleWindowClass *class) {
gtk_widget_class_set_template_from_resource(GTK_WIDGET_CLASS(class),
"window.ui");
}
All my XML content is in the same folder as *.c and *.h files. This is a testing decision and have no other meaning.
The _from_resource() part of the function name indicates that the path /org/gtk/exampleapp/window.ui is not a filesystem path, but rather a resource path. Resource paths tie into a feature of GLib called GResource which allows you to embed binary data inside a program or shared library.
You would write an XML file to describe what local files map to what resource paths, and then as part of your build process, you would convert that to a C source file with the glib-compile-resources tool. You then build that C source file into your program. The full details are on the page that I linked in the first paragraph.
(Note that these are not the same as the embedded resources in Windows executables, which use a different technology altogether, but work in similar ways.)
If you want to load something from a file, GLib and GTK+ and other libraries built on them provide a _from_file(), _from_data(), or _from_stream() alternative to the _from_resource() function. _from_file() reads the data from a file directly. _from_data() reads from memory. _from_stream() reads from a GStream, which is an object-oriented I/O endpoint defined by GLib in its GIO module. The function name suffix is optional; it varies.
In the case of gtk_widget_class_set_template_from_resource(), the equivalent provided is gtk_widget_class_set_template(), which follows the _from_data() pattern of reading from memory. The memory is stored in a GBytes object, so you have to read from your local file into the GBytes.
It's an oldie and the question seems answered but I'd like to take a direct approach and place solution - turns out that we can substitute this line
gtk_widget_class_set_template_from_resource (widget_class,
"/org/gnome/gtksourceview/tests/ui/test-widget.ui");
with this line to make the code work.
if (g_file_get_contents("test-widget.ui", &contents, &len, &err) == FALSE)
g_error("error reading test-widget.ui: %s", err->message);
bytes = g_bytes_new_take(contents, len);
gtk_widget_class_set_template(GTK_WIDGET_CLASS(klass), bytes);

How to use Doxygen with Prolog

I was struggling trying to make doxygen work with prolog.
At first I was only trying to include an "external and unknown" file, but as doxygen users know, it won't print a thing if it can't find useful (documented) functions.
Searching stackoverflow for both tags gives no single answer, and so I decided to ask, even if I already solved the puzzle, so people will have a hit in case of search.
I will let this question here, as people can suggest simple workarounds, and we may learn a bit more about the subject, but I'll use it to register my own answer after some (hard) efforts. Thanks.
To explain where I did start:
My first (almost) successful approach worked fine in a program that used both C and PROLOG.
It almost worked because latter on I saw this approach would not work in a PROLOG only project.
Anyway, what I did was simply add this
INPUT = README.md groups.dox c-and-pl.c c-and-pl.pl
FILE_PATTERNS = *.pl
EXTENSION_MAPPING += pl=c
EXTRACT_ALL = YES
EXTRACT_STATIC = YES
SOURCE_BROWSER = YES
And PROLOG code would look like:
/**
* #file cpl.pl
* #ingroup GroupUnique
* #brief CPL - C calls Prolog (Prolog module)
* #cond SKIPPROLOG
*/
/* brief explanation in a normal (non-doxygen) comment */
clause(A) :-
rule(X),
test(A, X).
and(so, on).
/** #endcond */
This would work because C would create the site anyway, and PROLOG page would be just a brief, no clauses, but a link to see the complete code, with normal comments explaining the clauses.
Why this doesn't work for a pure PROLOG project? And how to do that?
My second attempt to solve it involved the creation of a new file, a copy of the original PROLOG source, but with comments in doxygen format, and converting PROLOG clauses in something C-like.
Call the source source.pl and the second copy source.dox. You would write the PROLOG program as you usually do, using doxygen before the first occurrence of each clause, atom, module, etc.
Then cp source.pl source.dox and edit source.dox converting all clauses in something like:
/**
* \file source.pl
* \ingroup GroupUnique
*/
/**
* \ingroup GroupUnique
* \brief Defining factorial module
*/
module(fatorial, [fatpl/2]);
This takes time and are prone to errors, but it was a workaround. Problem is that doxygen now lists source.pl twice. But the functions can be documented. Use this configuration:
INPUT = README.md groups.dox source.pl source.dox
You need to keep source.pl because it is there the real source to be seen. And source.dox would be more like a C header file.
Not good. The work to transform manually a source.pl into a source.dox led me to write my own compiler (well, technically a filter, that uses only lexical tokens).
The program is available open source at github:
https://github.com/drbeco/doxygenprolog
and is cited here in the official pages among other filters: doxygen helpers
And a little note here, in the official SWI-Prolog site:
SWI-Prolog news
To make doxygen work with an unknown language you need:
Install this filter in someplace PATH can find.
Edit your doxygen .cfg to have:
OPTIMIZE_OUTPUT_FOR_C = NO
INPUT = README.md groups.dox source.pl
EXTRACT_ALL = YES
EXTRACT_STATIC = YES
FILE_PATTERNS = *.pl *.prolog *.swipl
FILTER_PATTERNS = *.pl="dox4pl"
Now you can run your doxygen as you normally do with other languages.

Have Doxygen link type to file for C

I'm creating a module in C. When I refer to that module in the documentation, I want a link to the header file, not the struct (because the functions and other useful information are at the file level).
The file my_iterator.h contains
typedef struct {
int foo;
int bar;
} my_iterator_t;
I would like references to my_iterator to create a link to my_iterator.h. For example,
/**
Create a new, specially configured my_iterator
*/
my_iterator_t* special_factory_in_another_module();
Putting "my_iterator.h" in the documentation would create the correct link, but would sound strange. Putting my_iterator_t in the documentation would sound better, but not link to a useful place.
Although it is a bit verbose, this does what I want:
/**
* Create a new, specially configured [my_iterator](#ref my_iterator.h)
*/
my_iterator_t* special_factory_in_another_module();

How can I keep doxygen from documenting #defines in a C file?

I have #define values in headers that I certainly want Doxygen to document but I have others in C files that I treat as static constants and I don't want Doxygen to document them. Something as simple and stupid as
#define NUMBER_OF(a) (sizeof((a))/sizeof((a)[0]))
#define MSTR(e) #e
How can I keep Doxygen from putting those #defines in the documentation it creates? I've tried marking it with #internal but that didn't seem to help.
A somewhat-related question on Doxygen and #define, how can I get:
#define SOME_CONSTANT 1234 /**< An explanation */
to put "SOME_CONSTANT" and "An explanation" but not "1234" in the output?
There is no need to use the \cond and \endcond commands. You can hide the initializer by simply using the \hideinitializer command:
#define SOME_CONSTANT 1234 /**< An explanation #hideinitializer */
Regarding the first question, you may set HIDE_UNDOC_MEMBERS = YES and only the macros having a Doxygen documentation block will be shown in the output.
You can set MAX_INITIALIZER_LINES = 0 in your doxyfile to hide the values of your defines.
You can exclude any part of code from Doxygen parsing with \cond ... \endcond tags.
edit: Some related questions:
How can Doxygen exclude a C++ class?
Exclude some classes from doxygen documentation
You only want to document what is declared in the .h files. I'm assuming you declare all static functions and variables as static in your .c files. All the remaining are declared in .h corresponding files also. These are your "public" members.
What I like to do in this case, and I believe doxygen was more designed to be used this way is:
in your Doxyfile, set EXTRACT_ALL = NO and add the directory where your .h files are to INPUT
add /** \file */ to all your .h files (but not your .c files).
This will index only what is contained in your .h files. You can still add the directory containing your .c files to INPUT at your Doxyfile, and they will be scanned for additional documentation for your "public" members...
It will no doubt still seem noisy and unnatural, but to address your other question, try:
/** An explanation */
#define SOME_CONSTANT /** #cond */ 1234 /** #endcond */
I solved this problem by moving my documentation from the .c file to the .h file. Then run doxygen only on the .h file.
Then the items that I want to document (the 'public' items) are intrinsically what doxygen picks up.
Because I have been previously careful to put 'public' items in the .h file and 'private' items in the .c file this works very well.
This technique came to mind when I noticed that doxygen was pulling in the includes. It struck me that if I were to also move the subset of includes that the calling module would need to use my module, then that list would be documented as well.
This technique has an additional benefit: I can put the documentation in one terminal window and the source in a different terminal window while updating the documentation.
Sometimes you may have a define which you want to document, but want doxygen to treat it differently (or even ignore it completely to avoid parsing errors).
For this you can define the #define in doxygen differently than in your sourcecode.
Example:
Some compilers allow variable linkage to specific segments, i.e.:
const int myvar # "segment_of_myvar_in_memory"=123;
=> doxygen would parse the "segment_of_myvar_in_memory" part as variable name which is not desired.
We could use a define for it:
#define __link_to_segment(name) # name
const int myvar __link_to_segment("segment_of_myvar_in_memory")=123;
If Preprocessing is active, Doxygen interprets our variable now as a function because of the function-like define using brackets..
But if we redefine our define within the Doxyfile, behaviour changes:
PREDEFINED = __link_to_segment(a)=
now the variable is parsed correctly as variable - also all types or keywords in front are correctly shown as keywords.
A nice side effekt:
In case you use 2 different IDEs with your code (one IDE for compiling&debugging, one for editing), you will also discover that some IDEs (i.e. Eclipse) have problems parsing variables with #"segment name". Using the approach above, you can redefine the __link_to_segment(name) there too:
#define __link_to_segment(name)
i.e. Eclipse will then show and parse the variable correctly, whereas the "compiling&debugging" IDE can still link the variable to its segment name.

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