AutoDoc 2.0 Beta 4

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:

Don Yacktman
(801)221-0344
don@misckit.com

Carl Lindberg
Carl_Lindberg@blacksmith.com

NEW BETA 4 RELEASE OF AUTODOC 2.0 AVAILABLE

Update to Objective-C Documentation Generation Tool Is Now Available

PROVO, UT, May 10, 1999 -- An update to the popular NEXTSTEP developer tool "autodoc" is now available. This new version runs on both the OPENSTEP and MacOS X Server operating systems, and should be compilable for NT.

Beta4 is primarily a bugfix release for beta3, though there are a few new features. The main differences are:

• Fixed bad bug with specifying files on command line
• Better RCS tag handling
• Allows GNU "--" style command line options
• Will now find .M files
• a few other bug fixes (see the README for details)

The main new features in beta3 were:

• WebScript support (classic syntax only)
• Documentation
• ability to avoid documenting #defines that start with an underscore (to avoid documenting multiple-inclusion-protection macros)
• included newer version of format_comment script

AutoDoc 2 is a complete re-implementation of the original 'autodoc' Perl program written by Adam Swift. AutoDoc generates documentation for Objective-C classes, categories, and protocols by extracting comments from the source code. This allows a developer to maintain code documentation as part of the source code.

This new version is written in Objective-C. It tries to mimic all of the features in the original autodoc, so that it can be used as a drop-in replacement. It adds a few new features as well, such as HTML output (in addition to RTF), WebScript support, the ability to put method comments above the method line in the .m file, and the ability to generate a documentation file for each class, category, and/or protocol found in a .h/.wos file (as opposed to one doc file per .h file).

When the beta period is finished, Autodoc 2 will be donated to the MiscKit and become part of the kit itself as an example program. Before that happens, a beta test version is being made available so feedback such as suggestions, bug reports, etc. may be collected and incorporated into the program. The beta version is available from ftp.misckit.com as an OPENSTEP binary, a MacOS X Server binary, and as source code at the following URLs.

OPENSTEP/Mach 4.2 binary:

ftp://ftp.misckit.com/pub/next/misckit/AutoDoc-2.0b4.NIS.b.tar.gz

MacOS X Server binary:

ftp://ftp.misckit.com/pub/next/misckit/AutoDoc-2.0b4-P-b.tar.gz

Source code (as an OPENSTEP 4.2 Tool project):

ftp://ftp.misckit.com/pub/next/misckit/AutoDoc-2.0b4.s.tar.gz

In addition to providing the FTP site, we have created a mailing list for feedback and other discussion on autodoc. The list's address (for posting messages) is:

autodoc@of.org

and subscription/cancellation requests should be sent to:

autodoc-request@of.org

This mailing list implements several measures to reduce spam and other types of abuse. For more information about these measures and how to effectively use the list, please see the informational web page at this URL:

http://www.of.org/autodoc/info.html

An archive of all posts to the list is maintained on the web at:

http://www.of.org/autodoc/

Please send any bug reports to the autodoc mailing list or, failing that, to Carl or Don directly.

Carl Lindberg

Carl Lindberg is a consultant with BLaCKSMITH and was one of the first contributors to the MiscKit.

Don Yacktman

Don Yacktman is an alumnus of Brigham Young University, with a Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He acts as the MiscKit administrator in his spare time between various NEXTSTEP and Unix consulting projects.

The MiscKit

The MiscKit is an open source collection of free Objective-C objects designed to work with the NEXTSTEP, OPENSTEP, and Rhapsody operating systems. An active project since 1993, the kit has grown to become one of the staples in the tool chest of most Objective-C programmers. Further information is available on the web at http://www.misckit.com/.

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