Where can I find the .NET documentation in an easily parseable format?

Question

I'd like to do some processing and statistics calculations over the .NET framework's classes and methods.

Can I get the documentation in an easily parseable format?

Or am I doomed to scrap MSDN?

Answer 1

There is XML documentation in the .NET Framework Assemblies, if you're willing to read it from them.

Answer 2

If you're just interested in the code itself, you could just load the types directly via reflection; that way you'll have direct access to whatever information you need. It could be slow of course!

Answer 3

There are "lightweight" and "script-free" formats for MSDN pages now. That doesn't completely solve your problem, but it should make the pages a little easier to parse.

You can put (lightweight) or (loband) in the URL to get these formats:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io%28lightweight%29.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io%28loband%29.aspx

If you go to MSDN in the browser, there are options to switch between these different views as well.