Is there a standard (like phpdoc or python's docstring) for commenting C# code?

Question

Is there a standard convention (like phpdoc or python's docstring) for commenting C# code so that class documentation can be automatically generated from the source code?

Answer 1

You can use XML style comments, and use tools to pull those comments out into API documentation.

Here is an example of the comment style:

/// <summary> /// Authenticates a user based on a username and password. /// </summary> /// <param name="username">The username.</param> /// <param name="password">The password.</param> /// <returns> /// True, if authentication is successful, otherwise False. /// </returns> /// <remarks> /// For use with local systems /// </remarks> public override bool Authenticate(string username, string password) 

Some items to facilitate this are:

GhostDoc, which give a single shortcut key to automatically generate comments for a class or method. Sandcastle, which generates MSDN style documentation from XML comments.