Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand. -- Martin Fowler, 1999

We all love documentation because it makes our codebases easier to understand, yet no one has time to write it in a good and proper way.

DoGe is a (Do)cumentation (Ge)nerator which will generate a proper documentation skeleton based on certain expressions (mainly functions). Simply put your cursor on a function, press <Leader>d, jump quickly through TODO items using <Tab> and <S-Tab> to quickly add descriptions and go on coding!

Visit the demo page

• Table of Contents
• Supported languages and doc standards
• Getting started
• Configuration
  • Choosing a different doc standard
  • Options
    • g:doge_enable_mappings
    • g:doge_mapping
    • g:doge_filetype_aliases
    • g:doge_buffer_mappings
    • g:doge_mapping_comment_jump_forward
    • g:doge_mapping_comment_jump_backward
    • g:doge_comment_interactive
    • g:doge_comment_jump_wrap
    • g:doge_comment_jump_modes
• Commands
  • :DogeGenerate {doc_standard}
  • :DogeCreateDocStandard {doc_standard}
• FAQ
  • Using C / C++
    • Prerequisites
    • Adding additional clang args
    • Package manager
    • Manual compiling
• Help
• Contributing
• Motivation
• Supporting DoGe
• License

Every language that has a documentation standard should be supported by DoGe.

Is your favorite language not supported? Suggest a new language 🎉
Is your favorite doc standard not supported? Suggest a new doc standard 🎉

Install DoGe:

Using vim-pack:

• git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/kkoomen/vim-doge ~/.vim/pack/*/start/vim-doge

Using pathogen:

• git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/kkoomen/vim-doge ~/.vim/bundle/vim-doge

Using plug:

• Plug 'kkoomen/vim-doge'

Run :help doge to get the full help page.

DoGe supports multiple doc standard and you can overwrite them per filetype in your vimrc. Is your favorite doc standard not supported? Suggest a new doc standard 🎉

Example:

let g:doge_doc_standard_python = 'numpy'

If you want to change the doc standard specifically for a buffer you can do:

" Inside test.py
:let b:doge_doc_standard = 'numpy'

Here is the full list of available doc standards per filetype:

Default: 1

Whether or not to enable built-in mappings.

Default: '<Leader>d'

The mapping to trigger DoGe. The mapping accepts a count, to select a specific doc standard, if more than one is defined.

Default:

{
  'javascript': [
    'javascript.jsx',
    'javascriptreact',
    'javascript.tsx',
    'typescriptreact',
    'typescript',
  ],
  'java': ['groovy'],
}

Set filetypes as an alias for other filetypes. The key should be the filetype that is defined in ftplugin/<key>.vim. The value must be a list of 1 or more filetypes that will be aliases.

Example:

let g:doge_filetype_aliases = {
\  'javascript': ['vue']
\}

If you use the above settings and you open myfile.vue then it will behave like you're opening a javascript filetype.

Default: 1

Mappings to jump forward/backward are applied as buffer mappings when interactive mode starts and removed when it ends.

Default: '<Tab>'

The mapping to jump forward to the next TODO item in a comment. Requires g:doge_comment_interactive to be enabled.

Default: '<S-Tab>'

The mapping to jump backward to the next TODO item in a comment. Requires g:doge_comment_interactive to be enabled.

Default: 1

Jumps interactively through all TODO items in the generated comment.

Default: 1

Continue to cycle among placeholders when reaching the start or end.

Default: ['n', 'i', 's']

Defines the modes in which doge will jump forward and backward when interactive mode is active. For example: removing 'i' would allow you to use for autocompletion in insert mode.

Command to generate documentation. The {doc_standard} accepts a count or a string as argument, and it can complete the available doc standards for the current buffer.

The numeric value should point to an index key from the b:doge_supported_doc_standards variable.

The string value should point to a doc standard name listed in the b:doge_supported_doc_standards variable.

Command to generate a custom doc standard template. The {doc_standard} is a mandatory argument which is the name of the new doc standard. If it exists, the existing doc standard with the same name will be used as base for the custom template. It can complete the available doc standards for the current buffer.

For more information on how to create custom doc standards you can read Writing your first pattern.

If you use a language that belongs to the C-family then you have to use clang. This is the parser that is being used for generating proper documentation.

• Vim requires to be compiled with python 3.
• Python 3.5+
• pip3 install clang

The Python binding for clang allows additional arguments. These arguments can be set with g:doge_clang_args. For example:

let g:doge_clang_args = ['-I', '/my/include/path']

If you've installed clang via your package manager then you might have a file called libclang.so.<libclang-major-version> somewhere in your system, for example: /usr/lib/libclang.so.8. Go into the directory where this file exists using cd and create a symlink:

cd /usr/lib/
ln -s libclang.so.8 libclang.so

Now it should be detectable via python if you do:

$ python3
>>> from clang.cindex import Index
>>> Index.create()
>>> <clang.cindex.Index object at 0x1084763d0>

If you compiled libclang manually, then make sure that your $PATH and $LD_LIBRARY_PATH are set correctly.

The libclang binary its location should be defined in the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH:

# MacOS
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/lib/"

To open all the help pages, run :help doge.

Help or feedback is always appreciated. If you find any bugs, feel free to submit a bug report. If you think DoGe can be improved, feel free to submit a feature request or a pull request if you have time to help out.

Read the Contribution Guidelines and Code of Conduct when doing contributions.

I created DoGe mainly because I couldn't find a plugin that could generate proper comments for a big collection of languages in a quick and easy way. I am a polyglot developer when it comes to programming languages and I couldn't find proper vim plugins that would generate documentation quickly for all languages I did want to be supported.

Rather then scraping off the internet to find all sorts of vim plugins for every language I was coding in, I did want a single plugin that would support every language I was working in.

Another big motivation for me is that I've noticed people tend to skip the documentation part because writing just the skeleton of the comment takes already too much time and I am one of those people. Having the skeleton generated and an interactive mode to quickly add descriptions is a big time saver.

Do you enjoy using DoGe? Give it a star on GitHub and submit your vote on vim.org.

DoGe is licensed under the GPL-3.0 license.