GhostDoc with full VB support by ThinqLinq

GhostDoc with full VB support

I have used the GhostDoc tool before and found it to be helpful in adding comment stubs to methods. Using it is really easy. Just select the method you want to annotate and press the hot-key (CTRL-SHIFT-D by default). For example, when we were showing how to implement pingbacks we added a method that parsed the post and sent the pingbacks accordingly. To refresh your memory, the method's signature was as follows

Public Shared Sub ParsePostAndSendPostbacks(ByVal source As PostItem)
End Sub

Although we tried to make this code self-commenting. It never hurts to have fuller commenting, particularly if you are interested in creating code documentation with a tool like Sandcastle. With Ghost Doc, we simply select the method we want to annotate and press the hotkey. GhostDoc parses our method name and stubs out our HTML comments as follows:

''' <summary>
''' Parses the post and send postbacks.
''' </summary>
''' <param name="source">The source.</param>
Public Shared Sub ParsePostAndSendPostbacks(ByVal source As PostItem)
End Sub

Notice that it tries to take our method and make the comments more readable, including changing "Parse" to "Parses". Naturally, you shouldn't just use the stubs blindly and should add more comments to make your code more maintainable, but something's better than nothing.

The great thing about the latest release and SubMain taking over the code base is that they've finally taken away the "Experimental" status of the VB support. They even have support built in for VS 2005, 2008, and 2010.

Way to go Sub Main! Also, thanks for keeping GhostDoc free.

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