Updated April 11, 2023
Introduction to Doxygen Alternatives
Doxygen is the software for creating documentation from illustrated C++ sources, but other programming languages like C, C#, Objective-C, UNO/OpenOffice, PHP, Java, IDL of Corba, Python, and Microsoft, VHDL, Fortran are also supported. From a collection of documented source files, user can create an HTML online documentation browser and an offline reference manual. It also provides for compressed HTML, PostScript, hyperlinked PDF, and Unix pages to generate output. The documentation is explicitly derived from the sources, making it much simpler to keep the source code compatible with the documentation. However, there are some flaws in this toll. So here is a list of various alternatives for Doxygen.
Alternatives of Doxygen
Let us discuss a list of Doxygen Alternatives.
1. Sphinx
Sphinx is an open-source full-text search server, built with simplicity for efficiency, relevance search quality, and integration. Sphinx makes both batch index and database search data, SQL database, NoSQL storage, etc.
It provides Output formats like plain text, HTML with Windows HTML Help, LaTeX, Texinfo, ePub, manual pages, etc. Sphinx allows Extensive cross-references for automatic links of classes, functions, glossary terms, citations, and similar pieces of information as well as semantic markup. It also has a Hierarchical structure which contains a simple document tree description with automatic connectivity to siblings, parents, and children
It provides Automatic indices for both the general index and the language-specific indices of the module. Sphinx has a Code handling capability in which is gives automatic highlighting with the help of the Pygments highlighter
2.MkDocs
It is static site generator software. User can get Extensions such as automatic testing for code. It also includes docstrings from Python modules, etc.
User can host full static HTML sites on Amazon S3, GitHub, etc. There’s a stack of themes available that looks great. The built-in dev-server allows the user to preview, as it has been written on documentation. Whenever users save changes, it will also auto-reload and refresh the tab. MkDocs is a tool in the Tech Stack group of search engines.
3. Gitbook
It is a standard documentation system where all products, APIs, and internal knowledge bases can be recorded by teams. It’s a platform for users to think and track ideas. Gitbook is a tool in a technology stack in the Documentation as a Service & Tools section.
4. Confluence
Confluence is a tool in the technology stack category of project management. In Confluence, it is easy to capture the information which is often lost in email inboxes and shared network drives because it is simple to search, update, as well as use.
5. Swagger io
Swagger io is a software In the Documentation as a Service & Tools division of a technology stack. It is an open-source tool. Swagger io is an independent set of Javascript, CSS, and HTML tools from a Swagger-compliant API that dynamically creates documentation and sandbox.
6. DocX
DocX is an open-source tool in the Tech Stack group of NuGet Packages. DocX is a .NET library that helps developers to easily manipulate Microsoft Word files. DocX is fast, and easy and does not require the installation of Microsoft Word or Office. 19 bug fixes and enhancements are introduced in v1.5.0 and are offered under the Xceed Software Inc Community License.
7. ApiGen
It is the solution for developing professional API documentation from PHP source code. Support for PHP 5.3 namespaces, packages, documentation links, cross-reference to standard PHP classes and general documentation, development of highlighted source code, and experimental support for PHP 5.4 features is provided by ApiGen.
8. Sandcastle
By focusing on the source assemblies and optionally integrating XML Documentation Comments, Sandcastle produces precise, MSDN style, detailed documentation. The main features of Sandcastle are it can Functions with or without comments from authors and it Supports .NET and Generics
9. Codex
Codex is a simple Markdown documentation platform based on files and developed on top of Laravel. To build beautiful documentation, it’s totally customizable and extremely easy to use. It supports Laravel 4.2-4., github-flavored Markdown, code Highlighting, It can Host an infinite number of guides with versions supporting them. It has other features like Friendly URLs for SEO, Simple TOC / system for navigation, Quick and Easy Searching, Theme supplied built on Bootstrap, Google Analytics supports, etc.
10. Daux.io
Daux.io is a documentation developer which creates custom documentation on the spot using a standard folder structure and Markdown files. In a developer-friendly way, it helps user create awesome documents.
Conclusion
In this article, we have seen various Doxygen alternatives along with their features. You can choose any of them based on your requirements. I hope you will find this article helpful.
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