Features

• Boost productivity and reuse!
• "JavaDoc" for Delphi support
• Also supports documentation separated from the source code
• Outputs both WinHelp and HTML files.
• Builds help files ready to be integrated with Delphi's IDE

Boost productivity and reuse!

In order for you or the other members of your team to (re)use (as well as easily maintain/extend) your code, it has to be properly documented, preferably in the form of help files which can be integrated with Delphi's own help.

Programmers are typically not thrilled about writing documentation. In addition, writing "normal" documentation is easy compared to what one usually have to go through in order to write "Delphi-ready" help files for code!

Time2HELP changes all this, suddenly it becomes easy to get professional-looking help files for your code. Programmers learn the basics of Time2HELP's DocComments within a few minutes.

If you are a team-manager (or member!), you will appreciate this because suddenly your (fellow) programmers gets immediate ROI (Return On Investement) of the DocComments they write, productivity boosting help files will motivate them to write better and more DocComments.

"JavaDoc" for Delphi support

Time2HELP supports the same basic mechanism as JavaSoft's JavaDoc tool. Time2HELP supports the same syntax, as well as an extended set of tags.

You may write the DocComments for methods and routines both in the interface section and in the implementation section. If present in both sections, the DocComments are concatenated.

Click the link below to see a simple example of a "DocCommented" unit:
L1UMLModel

Also supports documentation separated from the source code

In case you may want the documentation separated from the code, you can have the documentation in a separate file. Time2HELP synchronizes this file with your code, you only have to "fill in the blanks". This file is stored as a regular text file, and it's format is a simple subset of the ISO SGML standard.

Normally, writing in-source DocComments is preferrable, but sometimes you may want to document code which are not maintained by yourself, such as thirdparty components/libraries without proper help files/documentation. Then you can't have the documentation inside the source file, as your custom DocComments will be lost the next time the third-party vendor releases another version of their components/library.

Another use for external documentation is when you want to build help files in multiple languages. In Time2HELP, the external documentation for an item "overrides" the in-source documentation for the same item, meaning you can document in-source in your "favourite" language, and write help files in other langauges by using an external documentation file for each language.

Outputs both WinHelp and HTML files

Time2HELP "encapsulates" the decision about when the time is ready to switch to HTML Help. By changing an entry in a combobox, you can switch the output format from WinHelp to HTML and vice versa!

Deliver Time2HELP generated help files ready to be integrated with Delphi with your components/library, and let the surfers get a taste of your component/library without having to download anything by providing the help as HTML on your site as well.

To see an example of Time2HELP's HTML output (the result of the unit referred/linked to above), click:
L1UMLModel

Builds help files ready to be integrated with Delphi's IDE

Time2HELP builds help files ready to be integrated into Delphi 2, 3, 4, 5 and Delphi 6 help. We currently don't support Delphi 1 (Win 3.1 help)