[September 21, 2000] JDox is "an easily formatted, fully searchable XML version of Sun Microsystems's Javadoc program results. The DTD that defines the XML formatting of JDox closely follows Sun's Javadoc specification, and utilizes Sun's Doclet technology in creating the XML files. We have also expanded on the Javadoc standard by providing space for code examples. Planned extensions to JDox will further enhance the comprehensive nature of this powerful documentation tool. We believe that moving the Java documentation into an XML format makes sense -- for several reasons: (1) Documentation for a Java package can be reduced down to one XML file and a handful of XSL files, instead of creating multiple HTML files. (2) XML files are not locked into any particular layout. Changing the design of the documentation means changing one XSL file, not hundreds of HTML files. (3) JDox makes Java documentation fully searchable. Searching through HTML is a hit-and-miss affair, but XML allows precise and powerful searches. For example, you can search for all methods that return a specific Java class across classes, across packages, even across packages from multiple vendors. (4) Using XML makes JDox an open standard. Third-party vendors can incorporate Java documentation into their IDEs, deployment managers, or any other tools that they develop."
References:
