YARD is a documentation generation tool for the Ruby programming language.
It enables the user to generate consistent, usable documentation that can be exported to a number of formats very easily, and also supports extending for custom Ruby constructs such as custom class level definitions.
YARD is free and open source software.
Features include:
- RDoc/SimpleMarkup Formatting Compatibility: YARD is made to be compatible with RDoc formatting. YARD does no processing on RDoc documentation strings, and leaves this up to the output generation tool to decide how to render the documentation.
- Yardoc Meta-tag Formatting Like Python, Java, Objective-C and other languages: YARD uses a ‘@tag’ style definition syntax for meta tags alongside regular code documentation. YARD also supports an optional “types” declarations for certain tags. This allows the developer to document type signatures for ruby methods and parameters
- Custom Constructs and Extensibility of YARD: YARD is designed to be extended and customized by plugins.
- Raw Data Output: YARD also outputs documented objects as raw data (the dumped Namespace) which can be reloaded to do generation at a later date, or even auditing on code.
- Local Documentation Server: YARD can serve documentation for projects or installed gems (similar to gem server) with the added benefit of dynamic searching, as well as live reloading.
- Template Customization – customize templates using a specially designed templating system. The design allows plugin developers to make small modifications to a template without breaking changes that may have been made from another plugin. This means you can install multiple plugins that each make independent modifications without running into problems with your template. It also allows you to easily make small changes (like adding your own stylesheets) without digging into any markup.
Website: yardoc.org
Support: Guides, Mailing List, GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Loren Segal
License: MIT License
YARD is written in Ruby. Learn Ruby with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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