Development/Architecture/KDE3/Interface Documentation Tool

KDE Architecture - Interface documentation

Outdated Documentation is Dangerous

The KDE team strives to provide documentation for the KDE programming interfaces and libraries that is always up-to-date and correct. Taking ideas from literate programming and Java, we decided from day one to keep the documentation as close to the source as possible.

Documentation and Source are Joined at the Hip

All the KDE API documentation is contained within the library source itself. Documentation is written using specially-marked comments. This ensures that the latest library is always shipped with the latest documentation, and makes it easy for programmers to update and write documentation as the interface grows and changes.

Don't use the Source, Luke

The KDE project uses Doxygen, a tool to generate easily readable and heavily cross-referenced documentation in a variety of hypertext and printable formats. For an example of it's output, browse the KDE 3.5 API Reference.

We also recommend that application developers use Doxygen while developing their applications, since it acts as a good reference for the developers themselves, or for anyone who wishes to modify or extend the application. Any non-trivial application benefits from an easily browseable and comprehensive API reference.

For detailed information on how to use Doxygen, see the Doxygen home page.

Initial Author: Sirtaj Singh Kang