Elastic Javadoc
Elastic Javadoc was a project I did back in 2001 inspired by research literature and my own ideas on how to improve the Javadoc for Java.
Elastic Javadoc enables dynamic presentations and defines a language for users to create their own presentations (using JSP tags).
- Make the documentation tailored to the users frequently changing needs - both by flexible ordering and by reducing information to the essentials
- Make the documentation usable for more roles in the development process (ie. project managers)
- Handle "bookkeeping documentation" ie. change request, bugs, todo's
- Customize design and layout by using colors and to some extend replacing text with pictures (ie. of a bomb instead of a textual title "bug")
Historically,
IDE's at the time were sluggish, took up endless amounts of ram so most programmers relied on the external Javadoc pages in a web browser. Today I
gather from my own experience, most people are using the IDE's capabilities to display the Javadoc. In this respect this project may be a bit dated.
The Elastic Javadoc project in todays context probably will be more interesting to read about than to actually try out. This I've made the
the two-part report publicly available. If you are interested in binaries (it's a simple jdbc/javadoclet/jsp solution) then we may be able
to arrange something. Email me if you're interested.
Main report:
Poster displayed at the HyperText 2001 Conference.