Natural Docs 2.0 prerelease

EDIT: Natural Docs 2.0 has been released! The prerelease version described below isn't available anymore. Go to the web site to download it and find information on how to use it.

http://www.naturaldocs.org

Okay okay. So I've had Natural Docs 2.0 in a releasable state for some time. What happened was I had another project in mind that I wanted to build on top of it and release at the same time, but I don't think I'll have the time to build that on any reasonable timeframe. Then I wanted to at least get a new website up and running, but again, my personal life is kind of busy right now so even that's been dragging. So I decided to soft launch it here on the forums for the people who have been asking about it. You can be my guinea pigs for the proper release that will happen when the web site is done.

So here's the much abbreviated release notes. It's not everything but it's good enough for now.

• Completely overhauled output

  • 3 panel design so summary is always visible
  • Class view in addition to file view. Also database view if you use the database keywords.
  • Parameter and variable types show up as links in the prototypes. They also show up under parameter names in the body if you put a definition list under a Parameters: heading.
  • Class hierarchy without full language support if you document the class right above its definition and your language has a Java or C++ish inheritance syntax.

• Syntax improvements

  • Nested bullet lists. Just indent at least two extra spaces from the parent one.
  • Multi-paragraph bullet and definition lists. Just indent the following paragraphs at least two extra spaces.
  • Headings must now have title case (most words capitalized except for small ones like "and") to prevent false positives. You can force a heading by ending a line with two colons instead of one.

• Project.txt file

  • Run Natural Docs with the same command line as before and it will create Project.txt in your project folder. From that point on you can just run "NaturalDocs [project folder]" and edit Project.txt instead of having everything on the command line.
  • You can also run "NaturalDocs [project folder]" for new projects and it will generate empty files for you to edit.

• Caveats

  • Natural Docs now requires .NET 3.5. It is no longer written in Perl. If you use Windows 7 or later you already have it. For earlier versions of Windows download it here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21
  • Natural Docs should run on OS X and Linux with Mono. It's been a while since I tested it but I shouldn't have made any changes that would cause problems since the last time I did. Get it here: http://www.mono-project.com/download/
  • No source for now. It will come when the web site is ready.
  • Only C# has full language support. No Perl or ActionScript even though they had it in 1.x.
  • No embedded image support yet, as in (see image.jpg)
  • No customizable menu, just the file/class/database view.
  • Everything else Natural Docs 1.x did should be supported.

Get it here, post feedback to this thread: http://www.naturaldocs.org/download/prerelease/Natural%20Docs%202.0%20%28Development%20Release%2011-03-2016%29.zip

Update to fix a couple of crashes, and also because I forgot to include the .so file needed for SQLite on Linux and OS X.

http://www.naturaldocs.org/download/prerelease/Natural%20Docs%202.0%20%28Development%20Release%2008-22-2015%29.zip

I updated the link in the main post as well.

Yay, I have time to work on this again! I'm putting out this release because it needed a change to allow JavaScript to run from the hard drive in Microsoft Edge. I've made some internal plumbing changes as well but not anything you'd notice.

http://www.naturaldocs.org/download/prerelease/Natural%20Docs%202.0%20%28Development%20Release%2011-03-2016%29.zip

I'll update the link in the main post too.

Natural Docs 2.0 has been released! Go to the web site to download and for information on how to use it.

http://www.naturaldocs.org