VSdocman 5.4 - Code Commenter and Generator of Class Documentation for VB .NET and C#


1. OVERVIEW

VSdocman is a tool for commenting and the quick automatic generation of class documentation from your C# and VB .NET source code files. It is ideal tool for you if you create .NET component, control, application, smart device or web site (ASP .NET) projects.

VSdocman parses the Visual Basic .NET and C# projects and automatically creates MSDN-like API documentation with the table of contents, index, topics, cross-references, IntelliSense and F1 context sensitive help. 

With VSdocman you can:
 - Add and use XML comments in your source code.
 - Take advantage of its sophisticated WYSIWYG comment editor which helps you write your XML comments.
 - Easily insert tables, lists, pictures, links and other formatting directly in your source code.
 - Generate professional documentation in multiple and localizable output formats - HTML, CHM, Help2, MS Help Viewer 1.0, RTF, XML (including new MSDN2 look).
 - Fully integrate generated help into VS help system.
 - Generate documentation in command line mode.
 - Easily deploy Help2 documentation to the target computers.

VSdocman works as an add-in with:
 - Visual Studio 2010 - all editions except for Express edition
 - Visual Studio 2008 - all editions except for Express edition
 - Visual Studio 2005 - all editions except for Express edition
 - Visual Studio .NET 2003
 - Visual Studio .NET 2002



2. BENEFITS

 - You will get your API reference with just single mouse click. In large projects, VSdocman will save many days of boring tedious work. 
 - All in one . You can create complex comments, generate documentation and then deploy and register it.
 - Professional documentation of your components can be created in seconds for your customers or co-developers.
 - Consistency. All changes in the code are automatically reflected in newly generated documentation.
 - Documentation in various formats can be generated with a few mouse clicks and you have documentation in all supported formats in a few minutes.
 - Efficient communication within the team, especially when version control (e.g. SourceSafe) is used. Every programmer comments his part of the code. Everybody in the team can then make documentation and easily understand that code and get on-line help.
 - The source code is precisely commented and looks nice.



3. INSTALLATION

Before installing VSdocman uninstall any previous versions of VSdocman installed on your computer. Then just unzip installation package and run installation MSI file. VSdocman will be installed. After that it should be accessible in Visual Studio .NET IDE Add-Ins list. Detailed help is also available.



4. UNINSTALLATION

Go to "Control Panel" -> "Add/Remove Programs" and select VSdocman. All work is done automatically.



5. TRIAL VERSION

Trial 14 day version of VSdocman comes with these limitations:
 - warning message is displayed every time a new documentation is compiled
 - you are not allowed distribute generated documentation
 - the "watermark" text is inserted in generated documentation after trial period expires



6. HOW TO REGISTER

Anyone may use this software during a trial period of 14 days.
Following this trial period of 14 days or less, if you wish to continue
to use VSdocman, you MUST register (buy). When you buy VSdocman, you become
registered user.

Registered users will get:
 - full product license
 - free email support for the period of two years
 - free minor version upgrades at any time
 - free major version upgrades within 90 days of any registered purchase
 - discounts on non-free upgrade

You can register at http://www.helixoft.com via secure connection using ShareIt! service.
ShareIt! is well-known, leading shareware registration company.
It is quick and easy. Usually, you will have the full version in a while.

We accept Mastercard/Eurocard, Visa, American Express, and Diner's Club online.
Alternatively, we support bank transfer/wire transfer, we accept Checks and Money Orders
through postal mail. Corporate users may place purchase order.

Immediately after the payment is accepted you receive e-mail with registration code. Download and install the trial version of VSdocman. Go to VSdocman main dialog and press REGISTER button to enter the code. If the code is valid, trial version becomes a full version immediately.

Please visit http://www.helixoft.com/common/buy-helixoft-products.html.



7. CHANGES

In version 5.4
 1. FIX: Correct fonts and sizes according to system settings. Dialogs didn't look good especially on Windows XP with DPI other than default 96.
 2. FIX: An empty Source code section was generated for VB projects when "Remove line continuations from source code and join split lines" was selected even if source code inclusion was disabled.
 3. FIX: Random ghost ".vsdoc" files were created when VSdocman was started with no solution loaded in VS.
 4. FIX: In all html_* output formats, there were no generic parameters shown at class names in a table of contents.

In version 5.3
 1. NEW: Templates for generating HTML and CHM output which looks like the default online MSDN "lightweight" style.
 2. NEW: Option to delete all files in output folder before compilation. This can be set in Project Properties - Output - General.
 3. NEW: More details in generated documentation. The parameter type is listed also in its description, not only in syntax section. Added "Implements" section which lists implemented methods/properties.
 4. CHANGE: When you leave the "Platforms" property empty, then the Platforms section will not be shown in generated documentation at all.
 5. CHANGE: You no longer need to select also Constants if you want to include enumeration items in generated documentation.
 6. FIX: Sometimes there was an error when registering the help in MS Help 2 format (HxS files used in VS 2002-2008 help). This happened if a project or solution name contained a dot. Then the generated file names contained more than one dot. This is not allowed. The name is escaped now.
 7. FIX: The links that pointed to methods with generic parameters were broken in class diagrams.
 8. FIX: When generating "Pretty file names", the first link in Overload List was not working in HTML-based output formats.
 9. FIX: Broken formatting in Syntax section and source code listing in MS Help Viewer 1.0 format (VS 2010 help).
10. FIX: When you created or switched to a new profile and then edited any custom topic with WYSIWYG editor, then after pressing OK button, all changes in the new profile were saved into previous profile.

In version 5.2
 1. NEW: Missing XML comments are inherited also from implemented members, not only from overridden members.
 2. NEW: Added new <overloads> comment tag which allows to specify a summary, remarks and examples common to all overloads of a member. This information will appear on the Overloads topic page for the members.
 3. NEW: You can use the Overload: prefix in cref attribute of a link also for methods in current project. The link will point to overloads list page. Previously, this was only possible in links pointing to external methods (e.g. in .NET framework).
 4. NEW: You can use shorter O: prefix as an alternative to Overload: prefix in cref attribute of a link.
 5. NEW: Added Russian ru-RU localization.
 6. NEW: Added Thai th-TH localization.
 7. CHANGE: Improved listing of overloaded methods on Members page in MS Help Viewer format.
 8. CHANGE: By default, it's no longer possible to use macros from output templates directly in XML comments. Macros have the form: $MACRO-NAME$. If you wanted to use $ character, you had to escape it with $$. This is no longer necessary. If you still want to use macros in your comments, which is very unlikely, you can enable them manually in project properties. Just open .vsdoc file for the project and change value of "VBdocman_allowMacrosInComments" key from 0 to -1 (there is no GUI option).
 9. CHANGE: Significatly increased a speed of documentation compilation for large web site projects, when not all source code files are selected for compilation.
10. FIX: When an interface inherited from more than one base interface, then inherited members only from the first base interface were listed. Members from other base interfaces were ignored.
11. FIX: When a type implemented a generic interface, then its (and its members') syntax declaration was not generated correctly in some cases.
12. FIX: Sometimes there was an error when registering the help in MS Help Viewer format. One case was when the constants were included in a documentation. Another case was, if project or solution name contained a dot. Then the file name of generated OUTPUT_FILE.mshc file contained more than one dot. This is not allowed due to a limitation of MS Help Viewer 1.0 format. The name is escaped now.
13. FIX: The <see ...> links pointing to enumeration items caused "Not found" error. Since there is no separate help page for each enumeration item, such link is transformed to plain bold text now.
14. FIX: Some incomplete links in the form <see cref="Method(parameters)" /> pointing to method in current class didn't work.
15. FIX: Attributes of C# enum items were ignored (e.g. in regex filters).
16. FIX: Generating documentation for large web site project (not web application) in VS 2010 caused VSdocman crash.
17. FIX: In HTML and CHM documentation format, links to some classes (e.g. Hashtable) in web MSDN documentation didn't work.
18. FIX: Links to referenced external types that are not a part of .NET framework (e.g. third-party controls) are no longer generated. Only the plain text is generated now. This feature worked only for methods and properties, not for classes and interfaces. If you still want to generate the links, you can set it manually in project properties. Just open .vsdoc file for the project and change value of "VBdocman_linkForExternalNotInFramework" key from 0 to -1 (there is no GUI option).
19. FIX: When generating documentation in HTML format, some files contained the + character. This could cause problems on IIS7 web sites.
20. FIX: HelixoftHelpReg.exe and HelixoftHelpRegQ.exe utility didn't register F1 help in CHM format for VS 2008. Other help formats and other VS versions worked fine.

In version 5.1
 1. NEW: VSdocman now fully supports new MS Help Viewer format used in VS 2010 help.
 2. NEW: You can use path macros such as $(ProjectDir), $(SolutionDir) and $(VSdocmanDir) for specifying output folder, external files folder and templates folder. For example you can define output folder as $(ProjectDir)..\..\VSdoc. This is useful when sharing .vsdoc project properties in source control system.
 3. CHANGE: Improved handling of operators. Operators are now listed separately, they have correct syntax in all languages, they use correct cref syntax in links and their pretty file names don't contain forbidden characters.
 4. CHANGE: Improved saving of a project properties (.vsdoc) file. If the file is under source code control, it is first checked out before saving. The file is now saved less often, only when really necessary. Now, the settings in this file are not ordered randomly so the source code control isn't confused. Moreover, the properties are saved in more readable format for easier conflict resolving with source code control.
 5. CHANGE: When you add a new file into C# project, the file is automatically added to the list of files to be compiled.
 6. FIX: VB 2010 introduced implicit line continuation, i.e. in many cases, you can continue a statement on the next consecutive line without using the underscore character " _". Sometimes, VSdocman failed to recognize or insert XML comments in these cases.
 7. FIX: When the "Compile Solution to Single Documentation" was used, only the regex filters from a base project were applied to all projects. Regex filters from individual projects were ignored.
 8. FIX: When you defined your own additional namespace placeholders in custom topics then a "ghost" "New Topic" was generated in documentation TOC.
 9. FIX: Class diagram was not generated if it was not updated according to actual source code. For example the diagram contained a deleted class. Now the diagram is generated and a compilation warning is displayed.
10. FIX: When using the <include> tag in custom topics, the <summary> part was not included from external XML file.
11. FIX: Compiling from command line with "compileProject" operation failed if the project was nested in a solution folder in its solution.
12. FIX: When the "Compile Solution to Single Documentation" was used with RTF output, there were no code members present in a documentation.
13. FIX: When you added a new file into VB project, the list of files to be compiled was cleared.
14. FIX: Once you loaded a solution with only one project, the "Compile Solution to Single Documentation" and "Compile Projects in Solution Separately" buttons stayed disabled forever. Even when you later opened solution with more projects. You needed to restart Visual Studio and open the multi-project solution.

In version 5.0
 1. NEW: Added support for Visual Studio 2010.
 2. NEW: Added Hebrew he-IL localization and right to left text direction support.
 3. NEW: Added Georgian ka-GE localization.
 4. NEW: Regex filters allow to search also in member XML comments.
 5. NEW: You can use new $CURSOR$ macro in comment templates. This macro specifies where the cursor will be positioned after inserting XML comment using "Add XML comment" function.
 6. NEW: Comment templates also for parameters. For example, the following sentence is generated for parameter of EventArgs type: "An EventArgs that contains the event data.". Due to these new commenting features you should update you preferences (you can use "Reset" button to get default templates with all new features).
 7. NEW: Extension methods are listed also on Members and Methods pages for types on which extension methods operate. This works for your own extension methods and also referenced (e.g. LINQ) methods. For example, if your class implements IEnumerable(T) interface, methods such as GroupBy, OrderBy, Average, and so on will be listed on its Members and Methods page.
 8. NEW: HelixoftHelpReg.exe utility accepts new -z argument now. When this argument is used, the utility always returns 0 (OK) as exit code, even if there was an error during execution. This is useful if you include HelixoftHelpReg.exe as custom action in your MSI package and you don't want to cancel whole installation if there is some problem with help registration. MSI automatically fails if custom action returns non-zero value. 
 9. NEW: The $MEMBER-ASSEMBLY-VERSION$ macro which shows version number of documented assembly. You can use it anywhere in your comments, templates, footer or custom topics.
10. CHANGE: Improved resolving of incomplete links. For example it is no longer necessary to prepend dot in <see cref=".prop1" /> link pointing to prop1 property in current class. Instead you can use just <see cref="prop1" />.
11. CHANGE: Links to referenced external members that are not part of .NET framework (e.g. third-party controls) are no longer generated. Only the plain text is generated now. It's because there was only small chance that such help topic existed and these links caused "not found" error. If you still want to generate the links, you can set it manually in project properties. Just open .vsdoc file for the project and change value of "VBdocman_linkForExternalNotInFramework" key from 0 to -1 (there is no GUI option).
12. FIX: When targeting .NET framework 3.0 and higher, the XML comments from framework members were not always inherited correctly.
13. FIX: Links to generic members and to methods without parameters were broken in generated class diagrams.
14. FIX: Links to online MSDN help didn't work for some members (e.g.  System.Collections.Generic.LinkedList(T)) in generated html_msdn2 output.
15. FIX: In html_msdn2 output, if there was inline link to external URL, there were no scrollbars when external document was displayed.
16. FIX: WYSIWYG comment editor produced wrong cref links to methods whose parameters were constructed generic types, e.g. MyMethod(T).
17. FIX: WYSIWYG comment editor produced wrong comments on some rare occasions - if there were blank lines inside <code>, bulleted or numbered lists contained only one item and others.
18. FIX: Changes in comments in external XML comment files included with <include> tag were not updated in generated documentation. Restart of VS was needed.

In version 4.4.3586
 1. FIX: WYSIWYG comment editor escaped some characters in relative paths for local class diagrams and images. For example, the escape sequence %20 instead of space in class diagram path caused diagram loading error.

In version 4.4.3572
 1. FIX: WYSIWYG comment editor incorrectly inserted forwards slash instead of backward slash as path delimiter in relative paths for class diagrams and images. The forward slash in class diagram path caused diagram loading error.
 
In version 4.4
 1. NEW: You can include clickable class diagrams in documentation. Create nice diagrams and insert them with <img> XML comment tag. The comment editor  fully supports this feature. Class diagrams are only available in VS 2005 and higher.
 2. NEW: You can define unlimited number of user tags for your own sections in documentation. Previously it was possible to define only 5 user tags.
 3. NEW: You can create a table with more than 2 columns also directly in comment editor. In previous versions, you could edit and use such tables in editor but you needed to create them manually with the <list> tag. 
 4. NEW: Added Chinese localization for generated output.
 5. NEW: Improved HTML output. You can now open particular topic directly. When you enter URL of some topic in the browser, the complete help with table of contents will be shown automatically. This way it is easy to send URL of particular topic to your customers or coworkers. To get URL of the topic, just right-click on the topic in TOC and select "Copy link" from browser context menu.
 6. NEW: Improved HTML output. The table of contents is automatically synchronized with topic open in right frame.
 7. NEW: The type name XYZ in text "(Inherited from XYZ.)" on members page is clickable link now.
 8. FIX: Opening comment editor with XML comment containing the <img> tag caused freezing of Visual Studio on Windows Vista. Initial insertion of picture worked well, however.
 9. FIX: The "Auto-find" button for searching the hxcomp.exe didn't work in VS 2008 with VS 2008 SDK installed.
10. FIX: Some <see> links to custom non-API topics were not working in HTML documentation.
11. FIX: There was no footer text in generated topics with enumerations.
12. FIX: WYSIWYG comment editor didn't work if the documentation title for the project contained backslash character. This happened for web sites (not web applications)  by default because there was web site folder path in the title.

In version 4.3
 1. NEW: Added support for custom topics. Using WYSIWYG editor, you can now create any number of custom topics such as overview, examples, license agreement, usage descriptions, etc. You can define your own structure of table of contents (TOC) with topics and chapters. You can place generated API documentation anywhere in the TOC. You can even split API reference and insert specified namespaces at various places. This makes VSdocman really powerful tool for creating complete end-user documentation for your libraries and applications.
 2. NEW: Automatic and manual checking for VSdocman updates.
 3. CHANGE: You can use XML comment tags (e.g. <see>, <b>, etc.) in the topic footer text.
 4. CHANGE: Cosmetic change in options GUI. Renamed "Compile" section in project properties to "Code Members" and "Members" to "Member Types".
 5. CHANGE: In RTF documentation, the links to framework classes point to the latest online MSDN instead of the old one.
 6. FIX: The files from external files folder (e.g. pictures) were not included in documentation. This bug only appeared in version 4.2.
 7. FIX: VSdocman preferences were lost in VS 2002 and VS 2003. This bug only appeared in versions 4.x.
 8. FIX: Don't show Void as return type for constructors in C# and C++ syntax.
 9. FIX: In some cases, the link edited with Reference dialog was updated incorrectly in WYSIWYG comment editor.
10. FIX: WYSIWYG comment editor didn't correctly show tables with more than 30 rows and 3 columns. Now it can handle tables with up to 100 rows and 30 columns.

In version 4.2
 1. NEW: You can create tables with more than two columns.
 2. NEW: Comment editor recognizes and converts the following HTML elements in XML comments: <strong>, <em>, <a href=...>, <a name=...>, <see href=...>, <p>, <br/>, <ul>, <ol>, <li>, <table>, <tbody>, <th>, <tr>, <td> and <pre>. So you can use HTML code in your XML comments and when you open comment editor, it will be automatically converted to XML syntax.
 3. CHANGE: WYSIWYG comment editor no longer removes top-level XML comment tags that are not supported or explicitly defined by user in options. This way you can add any number of your own top-level XML tags manually without being worry that editor will delete them.
 4. CHANGE: WYSIWYG comment editor no longer removes <see> tags without the text, e.g. <see cref="T:MyNamespace.MyClass" />
 5. FIX: VSdocman crash when documenting generic VB method whose type argument is array, e.g. Function MyFunction() As Dictionary(Of String, Byte()).
 6. FIX: No syntax declaration was generated for C# methods without parameters. This bug was introduced in version 4.1.
 7. FIX: Inactive links were generated for <see> tags with incomplete cref attribute (e.g. only class name without namespace and T: prefix) in <summary> section. It worked fine in other sections such as <remarks>.
 8. FIX: Error with missing pubsinterface.gif file in Help & Manual output.
 9. FIX: Error message when clicking the Constructors link in members page header in *_msdn2 formats.
10. FIX: Incorrectly formatted text in clipboard after using Copy Code in help2_msdn2 output.
11. FIX: Freeze during compilation on Windows 7 beta.

In version 4.1
 1. NEW: Added regex filters that allow include or exclude members from documentation according to their name, declaration and attributes.
 2. NEW: Added support for the following XML comment tags:
    <paramref>,
    <typeparamref>,
    <see langword="null"/>,
    <see langword="true"/>,
    <see langword="false"/>,
    <see langword="static"/>,
    <see langword="abstract"/>,
    <see langword="sealed"/>,
    <see langword="virtual"/>.
    These tags allow formatting of parameter references and language keywords. It is recommended that you update your XML comment templates in VSdocman options if you update from version 4.0. You can do it with Reset button or manually (change e.g. <b>true</b> to <see langword="true"/>).
 3. NEW: Added instant regex tester in comment rules editor.
 4. FIX: Incorrectly generated syntax declaration for extension methods.
 5. FIX: Sometimes, VSdocman froze on multiple screen systems. This happened when some of VSdocman windows was open on secondary screen. Its position was saved and the next time when secondary screen was not turned on, modal window was not visible and it looked like VSdocman was frozen.
 6. FIX: Compilation of documentation crashed with "Unspecified error" when there was no member selected for compilation, e.g. no source code file was selected in Compile - Files properties.

In version 4.0
 1. NEW: Completely reorganized main window with new fresh look. Settings that are common to all projects were moved from project properties to global options. 
 2. NEW: Improved WYSIWYG comment editor - new look, nicer highlighting of editable sections, TAB key is used to move between editable sections, improved selecting, deleting and pasting of text blocks. 
 3. NEW: Flexible and intelligent templates for inserting XML comments. There are predefined rules which automatically fill <summary> and other values with standard text. For example, the following sentence is generated for constructor: "Initializes a new instance of the <CLASS-NAME-AND-LINK> class". You can define any number of your own rules. Moreover, when inserting comment, VSdocman can inherit comment from overridden member.
 4. NEW: Added Help & Manual output format. VSdocman supports complete integration with Help & Manual now. It is possible to create any TOC structure and additional non-API topics such as overview, license info, use cases, etc. Moreover, with H&M you can generate some other output formats, e.g. PDF.
 5. NEW: In addition to inherited members from project/solution, also inherited members from .NET framework classes are shown in Members list. For example, ToString, GetType and other methods are automatically listed. This is especially useful for documenting user controls where all inherited properties, methods and events are listed. 
 6. NEW: Missing XML comments in overridden members are automatically inherited also from .NET framework classes, not only from project classes. For example, if your class inherits from System.Object and it overrides ToString() method and it has no XML comments, then comments from System.Object are automatically used. 
 7. NEW: You can set your own documentation title. It is used in help window title, TOC, topic headers, etc. 
 8. NEW: You can set language for code examples with lang attribute. You can use <code lang="C#"> and <code lang="VB">. 
 9. NEW: You can set sort order for enumeration items - by name, by value or unsorted. 
10. NEW: Added <include> comment tag which allows referencing XML comments in external files. 
11. NEW: Highlighted code syntax in chm_msdn2, html_msdn2 and help_msdn2 otput formats. 
12. CHANGE: Significantly improved chm_msdn2 and html_msdn2 output - new look of the latest MSDN, language filter with persisted language settings. Moreover, the links to framework members are always working in chm_msdn2 output. Depending on installed MSDN version on end user's computer, the links point either to the latest local MSDN or online MSDN. 
13. CHANGE: Title page text can be formatted with XML documentation tags such as <para>, <b>, <img>, etc. 
14. CHANGE: The XML documentation file is generated also for Web Site projects. 
15. FIX: The "List inherited members" option on Compile - Members page was not saved. 
16. FIX: No more "Dead link..." warnings when <see> or <seealso> tags pointed to .NET framework members. 
17. FIX: Incorrect displaying of national (e.g. Russian) characters in Index and Search results in CHM outputs. 

In version 3.5
 1. NEW: Enum items can be sorted by name, value or unsorted. (No GUI option yet. You need to manually edit .vsdoc file.)
 2. CHANGE: The comment editor generates the top level XML comment tags - <summary>, <remarks>, <returns>, <value> and <example> on separate lines instead of on one line.
 3. CHANGE: When reading top level XML comment tags (e.g. <summary> or <remarks>), all leading and trailing whitespaces in tag value are ignored now.
 4. CHANGE: Member chapters in RTF output have different styles now (Heading 1-4). This allows better customization, e.g. numbering, custom structured TOC, etc.
 5. FIX: VSdocman wasn't present in VS 2008 sometimes if both VS 2005 and VS 2008 were installed.
 6. FIX: The help2_msdn2 output works with both VS 2005 and VS 2008 MSDN now.
 7. FIX: When generating documentation using "Compile Solution to Single Documentation", some projects didn't appear in the table of contents. They were only visible in Index.
 8. FIX: In Web Site projects (not Web Application projects), there was no syntax section generated for methods.
 9. FIX: In Web Site projects (not Web Application projects), compilation was aborted with "Unspecified error" if project contained overloaded methods.
10. FIX: In Web Site projects (not Web Application projects), also aspx files appeared randomly in the files list in Compile - Files options.
11. FIX: Sometimes, "Error reading file." error occurred in command line compilation and compilation didn't finish.
12. FIX: In VB 2005, not all overloaded properties were included in documentation. 
13. FIX: Comment editor inserted <returns> instead of <value> tag for properties.
14. FIX: Pictures included with <img> tag were not visible in RTF output.
15. FIX: The WYSIWYG comment editor appended random character to each picture, if that picture was followed by character other than white-space.
16. FIX: Occasional crash during compilation, especially with large solutions.

In version 3.4.2970
 1. NEW: The "Select link" dialog in comment editor allows selecting the members in referenced libraries (e.g. .NET classes) also in VS .NET 2002 and 2003. 
 2. CHANGE: The "ParamArray, comma-delimited list of values." text is no longer automatically prepended to description of parameters defined with ParamArray in VB or params in C#.  
 3. CHANGE: The "Optional", "Required" and "The default value is " texts are automatically prepended to optional parameter description only when parameter description is empty. (VB only). 
 4. CHANGE: The links to referenced members that are not part of .NET framework (e.g. third-party controls) are correctly generated too. There's a chance that the target help topic will be found.
 5. FIX: Inserting images in comment editor didn't work on Windows Vista.
 6. FIX: Sometimes, the command line build exited with error code 3 without generating documentation.  
 7. FIX: Comment editor generates correct cref link for generic constructed types and for arguments whose types are type parameters. The same applies to generated XML doc file. For example a method with full name
    Class1<T1, T2>.Method1<T3>(List<int> x, T2 y, T3 z) in C# or
    Class1(Of T1, T2).Method1(Of T3)(ByVal x As List(Of Integer), ByVal y As T2, ByVal z As T3) in VB
    should have the following cref link:
    M:Class1`2.Method1`1(System.Collections.Generic.List{System.Int32},`1,``0). 
 8. FIX: Methods in C# with no comment didn't inherit comment from overridden method. 
 9. FIX: The member's parent class name was not listed in See Also section of documentation generated with VS .NET 2002/2003. 
10. FIX: Wrong resizing of compilation progress dialog. 

In version 3.4.2942
 1. CHANGE: In Compile - Files options, the files are now shown as a tree for better navigation.You can easily select/deselect  whole folder now.
 2. FIX: New solution or project profile couldn't be created. This problem appeared only in version 3.4.
 3. FIX: Wrong indexing of the title page for full-text search in HTML output format.

In version 3.4
 1. NEW: Visual Studio 2008 support. 
 2. NEW: Added full-text search functionality in HTML output.  Moreover, table of contents and index are no longer implemented as Java applets. Everything is implemented in HTML and JavaScript.  This resolves security problems on intranets, various Java related issues and better indexing by search engines. 
 3. NEW: The "Select link" dialog in comment editor allows selecting also the members in referenced libraries (e.g. .NET classes) in VS 2005 and higher.
 4. CHANGE: Compiling  web site and web application projects is faster. 
 5. CHANGE: The compilation window is more responsive. You can cancel  the compilation immediately at any time. 
 6. CHANGE: The "Optional", "Required" and "The default value is " texts are automatically prepended to parameter description only when there is at least one optional parameter (it happens in VB only). Moreover, these texts are localized now. 
 7. CHANGE: Removed "Members" sub-page under namespaces in TOC. This page is not needed because all namespace members are listed on namespace main page. 
 8. CHANGE: Empty namespaces are not included in documentation. 
 9. FIX: Passing "/vs 2005" parameter to VSdocmanCmdLine.exe caused an error message. 
10. FIX: Using "/compileProject" operation in VSdocmanCmdLine.exe sometimes processed random project from the solution instead of specified project. 
11. FIX: The Help2 documentation was not registered correctly on some computers. There was no table of contents shown for generated documentation, only Index and Search worked fine. 
12. FIX: Small problems in WYSIWYG comment editor - multiple lines with formatting (e.g. bold) inside <code> tags were joined together when opened in editor again, incorrect selecting/unselecting text with Shift + down arrow, improved undo operation. 
13. FIX: When declaring some member as generic type with particular type argument, the declaration in the help didn't contain two links - one to generic type and one to type argument. For example "public ICollection<MyClass> test;" in C# or "Public test as  ICollection(Of MyClass)" in VB should contain links to ICollection and to MyClass. 
14. FIX: Complex constant and enum values in C# (hex, containing +-/* or comment) are now calculated and correctly shown in all language syntax sections. 
15. FIX: Wrong syntax was generated for classes that inherited from generic classes in C#, e.g. public class MyClass : List<int>. 
16. FIX: Wrong syntax was generated for properties with different accessibilities for getter and setter part (.NET 2.0 and higher). 
17. FIX: Compiling large web site or web application projects (more than 1000 code files) caused VS crash. 

In version 3.3
 1. NEW: Added profiles. You can now save your settings under custom profiles and easily generate different documentation for the same project. You can also exclude specific projects when compiling documentation for whole solution. 
 2. NEW: Added pt-Pt (Portuguese) output localization. 
 3. CHANGE: Enhanced command line functionality. The VS IDE is no longer shown, the messages are written directly to console standard output and added support for profiles. 
 4. CHANGE: Removed Save/Load default settings functionality. 
 5. CHANGE: Modified help2_msdn2, html_msdn2, chm_msdn2 and rtf outputs. When compiling the solution to single documentation, the help title, header and file names are based on solution name and not on the current project name. Moreover, the Help2 output no longer contains unnecessary extra root node. 
 6. CHANGE: Launching of VSdocman on web projects in VS 2005 works much faster now. 
 7. FIX: When "Public" was not selected for compilation in VSdocman options, explicitly defined namespaces and their contents were not included in documentation. 
 8. FIX: In web site projects in VS 2005, the source files in subfolders were ignored. 
 9. FIX: In Web Application projects in VS 2005 (not web sites), the code behind files of the forms were ignored. 
10. FIX: If the solution contained SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services project, the "Compile Solution" and "Compile Solution to One Documentation " buttons were not available. 
11. FIX: When Pretty file names were selected in Output - File Names options, constructors were not listed in documentation. 
12. FIX: The C# source code is no longer marked as Visual Basic in some output formats. The language of the source code is shown correctly for VB .NET and C#. 
13. FIX: The blank lines in source code and code examples were removed in HTML based documentation. 
14. FIX: The user defined Platforms text was ignored in some output formats. 
15. FIX: The "Copy Code" button above the code section is fixed in chm_msdn2 and html_msdn2 output. 
16. FIX: The inheritance tree was not shown for some classes and some links to framework classes didn't work as well. 
17. FIX: The class declaration was handled incorrectly if it contained conditional compilation directives (e.g. #if). 
18. FIX: Sometimes the comment editor (when set as modal) was hidden behind VS window. 
19. FIX: In comment editor, when the last text in table cell was code or link, the XML comment for the table was generated incorrectly. 
20. FIX: Installation error on Windows Vista.

In version 3.2
 1. NEW: You can select for which languages VSdocman generates syntax - VB .NET, C#, C++ and JScript. 
 2. NEW: You can define platforms and supported frameworks.
 3. NEW: User is warned if he tries to insert picture from outside of external files folder or if external files folder is not defined.
 4. CHANGE: Adding or editing XML comments in large files works faster now. 
 5. CHANGE: Main VSdocman window stays open for further work after compiling documentation. 
 6. CHANGE: Improved RTF output. Added page numbers in TOC and index. Removed duplicate namespaces when compiling solution to single documentation. 
 7. CHANGE: Generated help page for the namespace doesn't contain declaration section anymore. 
 8. FIX: Sometimes the "Select reference" dialog didn't show all namespaces in the project. 
 9. FIX: When using help2_msdn2 output format, the topics were shown incorrectly if MSDN for VS2005 was uninstalled (replaced by full MSDN). 
10. FIX: VSdocman locked if there were /* ... */ comments inside attribute. 
11. FIX: In VS 2005, when documenting whole solution, the projects in solution folders were not included. 
12. FIX: In some rare cases, the "Dead link..." warnings appeared when there were no dead links at all. 
13. FIX: No "S" icon in class list and no "static" keyword in C# declaration for C# static classes in VS 2005. 
14. FIX: There was no link to parent class in See Also section of class members if the class was generic and written in C#. 
15. FIX: Wrong syntax of array parameters in C# methods was used in VB .NET declaration. The [] was used instead of ().
16. FIX: Namespaces were sometimes listed with full name and sometimes with short name. They are always listed with full name now.

In version 3.1
 1. Comment editor doesn't make word wrapping of the text inside <code> and <c> tags when writing comments back to source code. 
 2. Warning is shown when VSdocman cannot save its settings due to insufficient write permissions or file is read-only (because it is checked-in to SourceSafe). 
 3. FIX: Problems with generating the output for C# projects with generic members. The < and > characters in member name caused problems in HTML or XML based output formats. 
 4. FIX: Pasting of formatted text didn't work in WYSIWYG comment editor in VS 2005. 
 5. FIX: In some special cases, the XML comment was placed at incorrect place in C# source code in VS 2005. 
 6. FIX: Wrong section name for method return value in RTF output. 

In version 3.0 (VBdocman .NET renamed to VSdocman)
 1. Added full C# support. The program now supports VB .NET and C#. That's why it is renamed from VBdocman .NET to VSdocman. 
 2. Localized output in several languages including English, German, French, Spanish and Slovak. Adding new language is just matter of editing one text file. 
 3. All links (<see>, <seealso>, inheritance tree, types in declaration) can point to framework members now. 
 4. Member declaration is shown also in C#, C++ and JScript syntax and types inside are shown as links.
 5. Added ability not to list member attributes in declaration syntax section (Miscellanous - Source Code settings). 
 6. Inheritance tree shows all superclasses, even those outside the project, e.g. framework classes. 
 7. Public variables in the class are no longer listed as properties. They are listed as fields now. 
 8. Members on "Members" page are grouped and marked by accesibility (public, protected, ...). Static members have "static" icon. 
 9. Improved HTML output for even better cross-browser compatibility. 
10. Significantly improved performance speed. 
11. FIX: Comment editor was not displayed on computers with "Large Fonts" set. 
12. FIX: Problems with compilation of Declares in VS 2005. 
13. FIX: Problems with compilation of Events in VS 2005 
14. FIX: Problems in WYSIWYG comment editor: pasting multiple times, deleting text selection deleted also next character, inserting new section (e.g. Example) while text block was selected. 
15. FIX: Problems with remembering which files go to compilation. 
16. FIX: Incorrect values of enumeration constants that were not explicitly initialized. 

In version 2.3
 1. Added support for generics in VS 2005. New <typeparam> tag introduced.
 2. Improved support for partial classes and structures in VS 2005.
 3. Added support for <System.ComponentModel.Description...> attribute. You can easily insert <Description...> attribute from context menu. If you add new comment, default summary is automatically extracted from <Description...> attribute if any. 
 4. Comment editor now remembers whether it is in WYSIWYG mode and its size and position. 
 5. Removed editing of parameter settings from comment editor because parameter settings represent old practice from VB6 and you should use enumerations instead. VBdocman however still recognizes <set> and @set tags in the comments. 
 6. FIX: <returns> tag is not added by "Add XML Comment" for Subs. 
 7. FIX: VBdocman didn't work with Web projects in VS 2005.
 8. FIX: When using Compile Solution or Compile Solution to One Documentation, some projects may have empty documentation. 
 9. FIX: Compiling help for Smart Device projects didn't work. 
10. FIX: Command "VBdocmanNET.Connect.CompileSolutionToOne" didn't work from command line. 
11. FIX: Wrong adding and reading of comments in VS 2005 when member has attribute. 

In version 2.2
 1. Added support for VS 2005. Generics are not supported yet.
 2. Added support for smart device projects.
 3. VBdocman now produces and recognizes C# XML links in cref attributes. Type character is prefixed, e.g. M: or T:, [] are used instead of () for array parameters, @ is appended to ByRef parameters and there are no spaces between parameters. This is needed for good compatibility with VS 2005.
 4. Help 2 documentation can be viewed with full formatting immediately after generation.
 5. Context menus are only visible on VB and macro files.
 6. "Compile to One Solution" button is disabled when there's only one project in the solution.
 7. FIXED: When there was an option checked to generate IntelliSense XML file, some formatting tags (<c>, <see>, ...) in <summary> and <param> tags were ignored in resulting documentation.
 8. FIXED: Problem with the tabs (scrolling) in Comment Editor. 

In version 2.1
 1. Fixed bug that caused problems with setting a list of .vb files that are to be documented. This problem especially occured when updating your project from VBdocman .NET version 1.x to version 2.0.

In version 2.0
 1. New formatting and objects added to comments - bold, italic, underline, text color, links, bulleted or numbered lists, tables and pictures.
 2. Support for more XML documentation tags added - <list>, <para>, <see> and <value>.
 3. Comment editor is WYSIWYG. Only XML comments are generated by editor but VBdocman still recognizes also @-style comments.
 4. Comment editor can be also modeless, floating and dockable.
 5. <value> tag replaces <returns> tag in properties. <returns> tag is still valid in property.
 6. You can specify folder with your own external files now. All external files will be automatically included in documentation and you can reference them from your comments e.g. in <see> or <img> tags. 
 7. Added possibility to comment root namespace. 
 8. In addition to random numeric names, generated files can have also pretty and constant names based on member name. So you can easily reference them from outside. 
 9. You can generate ONE documentation for whole solution . Namespaces and members are merged into one TOC. 
 10. You can assign keyboard shortcuts to VBdocman actions.
 11. Preview of Help 2 documentation can be seen immediately after it is generated, without restarting VS. 
 12. VBdocman project settings are stored in separate .vbdoc file instead of .vbproj file. This avoids conflicts when using version control systems (SourceSafe) or automated builds. Old settings stored in .vbproj files are still valid if no .vbdoc file exists. 
 13. Documentation now indicates if a member has ObsoleteAttribute or FlagsAttribute applied. 
 14. Newly added project item is automatically included in VBdocman's Compile | Files list. 
 15. Undo operation after inserting comment by comment editor is improved. You don't need to perform Undo several times to get original state. 
 16. Inheriting of XML comments is fixed. 
 17. Paths (e.g. output path) may contain foreign non-English characters now. 
 18. Fixed problem with attributes in declarations on overloads list page. 
 19. Problem with saving of title text. Newlines were removed from title text after reloading VS. Fixed. 
 20. Missing spaces between words in RTF output when comment is on multiple lines. Fixed. 
 21. Fixed commenting of namespaces when one namespace was specified in multiple files. Now you only need to comment the namespace in one file. 


In version 1.3
 1. Fixed problems with links to external files. There is new prefix ^ for link to external files
    in addition to " prefix. 

In version 1.2
 1. Command line functionality added.
 2. Conditional compilation of individual members added. You can select for each member if it will be compiled.
 3. HTML output has now modern look, fixed scroll bars in table of contents and pages have MSDN style also in
    non IE browsers.
 4. References in XML comments that were broken to several lines are processed correctly now.
 5. Comment editor doesn't wrap references in @-style comments so that they be processes correctly.
 6. Fixed some problems when editing parameter settings in comment editor.
 7. Fixed parsing of constant value in @set tag if it was string with spaces.
 8. Fixed parsing of references in @-style comments if references contain spaces (functions with several
    parameters delimited with comma and space).
 9. Fixed functionality of "Find interesting links" button in comment editor in VS .NET 2003.
 10. @includesource tag always returned non empty value even if there was no value. Fixed.

In version 1.1.1495
 1. Auto-find button added to atomatically find hxcomp.exe anytime.
 2. Fixed problem when not all source files in the project were recognized. This happened when they had same names but were in different folders.

In version 1.1
 1. Non-english character sets supported.
 2. Non-english Visual Studio .NET supported.
 3. Ability to remove line continuations in source code listings in documentation.
 4. Compilation progress dialog can be resized to better reading of messages.
 5. Some macros added to templates to allow translation of templates to other languages.
 6. Some problems with unrecognized comments fixed.
 7. Behavior of Apply button in Comment Editor fixed.
 8. $CHRn$ macro processing fixed.
 9. When using XML comments, <, >, &, ' and " characters are escaped automatically in the background within $CODE$ block.
 10. Processing of names of overloaded members is not case-sensitive now.
 11. Fixed problems with enumeration constants in VS 2003.


8. CONTACT

Home page and registration information: http://www.helixoft.com

HELIXOFT
Tomasikova 14
080 01 Presov
Slovak Republic


Contact person:
Peter Macej
peter@helixoft.com