Adding images into source code

Question

Is there a way (or an editor) that allows me to link an image/files/http links from within a source file (*.java for instance), sort of like a rich text document ?

This way, while reading the code I can quickly look at the appended image (augmenting the comments), instead of opening the browser etc.

Answer 1

By industry standard, source code is almost always text-only (be it encoded in ASCII or unicode). You can always draw an ASCII art. ;-)

Answer 2

Javadocs are HTML, so you can just embed images there:

/**
 * This class does some funky stuff (see diagram).
 * <img src="relative/path/to/your/image.png" />
 * 
 */
 public class FunkyClass{
 }

Eclipse will happily show you the images in the javadoc view or on hovering over the comment. Other IDEs might or might not do the same.

Obviously you have to make sure somehow that the images are deployed with the javadocs...

Answer 3

You can add <img src=""> and <a href=""> in the javadoc of your classes.

You probably have tools and plug-ins that allow easily to see the Javadoc of your file.

One good example of mixing images and links in Javadoc is JRootPane