Is there a good alternative to xml documentation comments for C#?

Question

I find the xml doc comments for C# or VB.NET very hard to read. Is there a decent alternative (that still provides the benefits of documenting code for intellisense, doc generation, etc.)?

Answer 1

If readability is the problem you're trying to solve (i.e. reading XML is making your eyes wobble, which it does mine) you could add a stylesheet to the xml comments file. I started with the one referenced in this old post and modified from there. You'll have to add it back every time you build, but when you're documenting your changes for later reference (i.e. not using the docs a lot during active development) then it's not too bad.

I also use GhostDoc to make documentation a little less time-consuming.

Answer 2

Visual Studio's Intellisense only reads the XML documentation. Any other methods will end up generating it for you and will become out of date unless you're consistent in keeping things synchronized.

Answer 3

Could try doxygen. Aside from having a refreshing name it has a lighter syntax. There are documentation generation tools and it claims to support C#.

Answer 4

cr_documentor is another option. You use tha standard xml documentation (so intellisnese and other doc utilities stay happy). The human readable documentation is rendered in a window (docked or floating).

It may not be exactly what you want, but you might take a look at it.