Does Swift have documentation generation support?

Question

Many languages support documentation comments to allow a generator (like javadoc or doxygen) to generate code documentation by parsing that sam

Answer 1

Yes. Base common (I made snippets for it with Obj-C equivalent)

Objective-C:

/**
 @brief <#Short description - what it is doing#>

 @discussion <#Description#>

 @param  <#paramName#> <#Description#>.

 @return <#dataType#> <#Description#>.
 */

Swift

/**
<#Short inline description - what it is doing#>

<#Description#>

:param:  <#paramName#> <#Description#>.

:returns: <#dataType#> <#Description#>.
*/

Answer 2

Here are some things that work for documenting swift code in Xcode 6. It is very buggy and sensitive to colons, but it's better than nothing:

class Foo {

    /// This method does things.
    /// Here are the steps you should follow to use this method
    ///
    /// 1. Prepare your thing
    /// 2. Tell all your friends about the thing.
    /// 3. Call this method to do the thing.
    ///
    /// Here are some bullet points to remember
    ///
    /// * Do it right
    /// * Do it now
    /// * Don't run with scissors (unless it's tuesday)
    ///
    /// :param: name The name of the thing you want to do
    /// :returns: a message telling you we did the thing
    func doThing(name : String) -> String {
        return "Did the \(name) thing";
    }
}

The above is rendered in Quick Help as you would expect with formatted numeric lists, bullet points, parameter and return value documentation.

None of this is documented - file a Radar to help them along.

Answer 3

Swift includes "///" comment handling (although probably not everything yet).

Write something like:

/// Hey!
func bof(a: Int) {

}

Then option-click on the func name and voilà :)

Answer 4

Jazzy can help to generate beautiful apple styled documentation. Here is a sample app with details on how to use and configure quickly.

https://github.com/SumitKr88/SwiftDocumentationUsingJazzy

Answer 5

As of Xcode 5.0, Doxygen and HeaderDoc structured comments are supported.

Source

Answer 6

Maybe it's a good idea to have an eye on AppleDoc or Apple's own HeaderDoc which isn't recognized very much. I can still find some HeaderDoc hints in 10.9 Mavericks terminal (headerdoc2html)

I recommend to read the latest "What's New In Xcode"* (not sure if it's still under NDA) *The link points to the Xcode 5.1 version wich contains infos about HeaderDoc too.