Installation

The download includes an installer. Just quit all running instances of Visual Studio, run the installer executable, and hit the install button. This installer simply copies a few files onto your PC (in your My Documents folder). The next time you run Visual Studio, the Addin will auto load and place a new AtomineerUtils menu on the Tools menu.

Note that the installer must be copied onto your computer's hard drive to be run. Due to the executable security features in .net 2.0 it may fail if an attempt is made to run it directly from a LAN folder.

You can link the Addin commands to keypresses as follows:

• In Visual Studio, go to Tools => Options
• Find the Environment\Keyboard section
• In "show commands containing" type "Atomineer"
• The Atomineer commands will be listed. You can now select one, click in the "press shortcut keys" field and press the key combination you wish to execute the command (e.g Ctrl+Shift+D. Suggested keys are given with each command in the documentation below). When you are happy with the hotkey, click Assign.

Multi-user Installation
If you wish to deploy the AtomineerUtils addin to a number of developers and set them up with common settings (such as including a standard company header in the file header comments), just:

• Install the AtomineerUtils Addin on one PC as detailed above, and set up the options and/or rules as required.
• Copy the Rules.xml and Prefs.xml files from your "My Documents" folder (in Visual Studio 2008\Addins\AtomineerUtils) and place them alongside the AtomineerUtils installer .exe
• Have your developers install AtomineerUtils by running the installer .exe

In addition, AtomineerUtils uses a 'search path' when loading preferences/rules, which allows you to place your customisations into source control. See below for details.

Disabling or Uninstalling AtomineerUtils
There is currently no uninstaller for AtomineerUtils, mainly because it's trivial to uninstall manually and there are many more important features yet to be implemented.

AtomineerUtils can be temporarily disabled in Visual Studio by choosing the Tools > Add-in Manager menu item, and un-ticking the checkbox to the left of the AtomineerUtils add-in.

To uninstall AtomineerUtils, quit all running instances of Visual Studio. Now open the installation folder (this is usually the 'My Documents' folder - you can run the installer to be reminded of the install location). The install folder contains 'Visual Studio 2005', 'Visual Studio 2008', and 'Visual Studio 2010' sub-folders, each of which contains an 'Addins' folder. Delete the 'AtomineerUtils.Addin' file from each of these Addins folders. You may then delete the Visual Studio 2008\Addins\AtomineerUtils folder to remove all program files and your rules and preferences.

Command Reference

1. Add Doc Comment for a code element
2. Document all in this scope
3. Create C# or C++/CLI Property or a C++ Accessor from a member variable declaration
4. Implement/Declare C++ method
5. Open C++ Source or Header
6. Hide DocComments using Outlining
7. Hide Attributes using Outlining
8. Copy As Text
9. Word Wrap comment
10. Other Menu Items
11. Suppressing and Allowing User Interface prompting in Macros
12. Preferences controlling the behaviour of the Atomineer commands
13. Doc Comment Rules and Templates controlling the layout of comments and the generated documentation text

Command: Add Doc Comment

This command creates or updates a DocXml, Doxygen or Javadoc-compatible description comment block for C#, C++/CLI, C++, C, or Visual Basic code.

Usage
Place the cursor in an appropriate line:

• Anywhere in the first line of the file (for a file header)
• Anywhere in the first line of a "code element" (namespace, struct, enum, class, function, property or variable definition) or in any blank lines or documentation comments immediately preceeding the element
• Anywhere within a normal (non-doc comment) //-style comment block (to simply reformat the text with word wrapping)

...and execute the command.

Description
When you execute the command, the code around the cursor will be interpreted and an appropriate header comment will be inserted just above the current code element. As much useful information as possible will be extracted from your code, and where possible default comments will be inserted to save you unnecessary typing.

For example, the following function documentation headers were completely auto-generated. (Note that these examples are in the default AtomineerUtils style. The style is highly configurable (see some examples of different styles).

	////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
	/// <summary> Event handler. Called by the TaskListCtrl for KeyDown events. </summary>
	///
	/// <remarks> Jason Williams, 12/04/2009. </remarks>
	///
	/// <param name='sender'>  Source of the event. </param>
	/// <param name='e'>       Event information. </param>
	////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

	void TaskListCtrl_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
	{
	}

	////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
	/// <summary> Initialises the file buffer. </summary>
	///
	/// <remarks> Jason Williams, 12/04/2009. </remarks>
	///
	/// <exception cref="NotImplementedException"> Thrown when the requested operation is
	///                                            unimplemented. </exception>
	///
	/// <param name="fname">      Filename of the file. </param>
	/// <param name="buffSize">   Size of the buffer. </param>
	/// <param name="resetCache"> true to reset cache. </param>
	////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

	public void InitFileBuff(string fname, int buffSize, bool resetCache)
	{
		throw new NotImplementedException();
	}

	////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
	/// <summary> Gets or sets the foreground colour. </summary>
	///
	/// <value> The colour of the foreground. </value>
	////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

	public Color FgColour { get {}; set {} }

For more examples of the auto-generated documentation text, see: DocXML format comments and Doxygen format comments.

Generating new documentation
AtomineerUtils uses hundreds of special rules to generate meaningful documentation based on the types of code elements (e.g. constructors/destructors/operators, event handlers, indexers, etc), commonly used names (e.g. ToString, GetHashCode), common naming styles (e.g. GetXxx, SetXxx, XxxForm, XxxException), common abbreviations (ptr -> pointer, wnd -> window) and the context in which an element is used (e.g. 'sender' in an event handler, or the number of parameters to an Equals method, etc). 'Perfect' documentation can't always be achieved, but AtomineerUtils attempts to provide the best documentation it can so that even when you need to finish the comments yourself, the typing involved is minimal.

For example, AtomineerUtils Pro provides:

• (For doxygen only) the declaration of the code element being documented.
• A brief summary of the code element, containing an auto-generated description.
• Author and current date.
• All parameters, generic type parameters and any return value are entered into the comment as required, with meaningful auto-generated descriptions where possible.
• AtomineerUtils will attempt to keep related blocks of entries tidy by grouping them together and formatting them with indentation and word-wrapping).
• The cursor is positioned in the <summary> section of the comment, ready for you to describe your code.

The add-in uses some very powerful systems for generating the documentation automatically:

• A user-editable "rules" system containing thousands of rules generates meaningful documentation for code elements based on common naming practices, naming conventions, and can even combine information on parameter and return types (etc) with the naming to deduce more useful documentation.
• If existing documentation is available on an overridden base class method/property or an implemented Interface method/property, it will be copied into your new documentation comment. [*]
• If existing documentation is available on other overloads of a method, the docs from the best-match overload will be copied. [*]
• If a parameter has been used and documented in other methods of a class, the documentation from the best match will be copied. [*]
• All exceptions thrown within a method will be documented automatically.

[*]   Please note: The three features marked above rely on the Visual Studio Intellisense system. If this is disabled, your documentation is not in DocXml format for use by Intellisense, or the intellisense information is not available (e.g. in C code, and sometimes in C++) then AtomineerUtils will be forced to fall back to its regular auto-documentation generation algorithm.

All of the above is configurable - The style of blocks, the entries they contain and their ordering, indentation styles and word-wrap, and use of blank lines (both within the comment and between the comment and any surrounding code).

Updating existing documentation comments
If a documentation comment already exists, it will be parsed and updated - for example if you add a new parameter to a method, remove an exception thrown in your method, or change a Property by adding a get/set accessor, the existing comment will be updated to reflect the new details, effortlessly keeping the comment in sync with the code. This feature can also serve to automatically convert most existing DocXml/Doxygen comments into the AtomineerUtils format (see below for more details).

In addition, the block will be (optionally) reformatted to keep it tidy:

• Documentation entries will be formatted into a consistent ordering, grouped together into related blocks, with optional blank lines between them. Within each block of entries (e.g. <param> lists), the text for the entries can all be indented to start at the same column to enhance readability.
• If enabled, the word-wrap option will automatically reformat each comment entry to keep it tidy. The indentation level of the first line of each entry will be used in all subsequent lines. The word wrap will preserve blank lines, any lines at a greater indent level than the first line of the entry, and lines starting with certain text (examples (e.g., c.f., i.e.), bullet lists (starting with -, *, +), etc). To deliberately force a new line, you can also end the previous line with two spaces.
• Word wrap is suppressed for blocks of text that lie between <pre>, <code>, @code...@endcode, and @verbatim...@endverbatim tags. Note that these start/end tags must be the first nonblank text on the line.
• If enabled, the number of blank lines above and below the doc comment will be corrected to a user-specified standard to help keep code files tidy. The default is to enforce a single blank line above and below the comment. The number of blank lines to enforce after {, #region, #if, public:, private:, protected can also be configured.

'Deleted' entries
Any DocComment entries that are no longer required (e.g. deleted or renamed parameters) will be inserted at the end of the comment block in this form:

///### <param name='value'>  This parameter has just been deleted</param>

This preserves any text from these entries in case you wish to re-use it anywhere else (e.g. a renamed parameter). If you execute the Doc Comment command a second time, any such 'deleted' lines will be automatically removed to save you having to manually clean up the comment.

Additional tips:

• If the cursor is in a normal comment (a block of lines commented-out with single-line comments - //), the comment will be automatically reformatted using the word wrapping system, allowing you to easily update the text in your comments and leave AtomineerUtils to keep everything tidy.
• If you wish to re-generate the auto-doc text for any entry in your comment, or the entire comment, simply delete the entry/comment and execute Add Doc Comment again to update it.
• If you wish to document exceptions that pass through your method from a called method (i.e. uncaught exceptions), document them as 'Passed when' rather than 'Thrown when" and the comment will be preserved.
• By default, DocXml format will be generated, but adding a \file: doxygen comment at the top of the file (or forcing Doxygen format in the Options) will switch documentation into Doxygen format.
• Note that most documentation addins use the Intellisense system within Visual Studio to get information on the code element, so they can fail if your code is not in a compilable state (which I find is much of the time as I document as I write the code, not afterwards). AtomineerUtils only uses Intellisense to augment its own built in parser, so it is able to correctly handle code even if it is currently not in a compiled/compilable state. This means it also works for any sufficiently C/C++/C#-like language (e.g. Java and Maya 3D .mel script).

Changing the comment layout style and generated documentation text

The style of the comment blocks is quite configurable. High-level settings can be changed using the Atomineer Utils Options (available from the Atomineer.Utils menu in Visual Studio), while lower level improvements to the automatic documentation can be made by editing the Atomineer Auto-Documentation Rules XML file. See the Preferences and Doc Comment Rules sections below for details.

Converting documentation from an old format
If you have existing documentation comments in a format that AtomineerUtils can parse, you can configure AtomineerUtils to read it and convert it to your new AtomineerUtils style. The existing documentation must be in a valid XmlDoc or Doxygen-like form, but can be encoded in an alternative format (Doxygen/Javadoc/DocXml) and style (block top/bottom separator lines and line prefixes).

As this is a relatively rarely used option, it must be manually configured by opening the AtomineerUtils Prefs.xml file (in your install folder, usually My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Addins\AtomineerUtils) and adding the following elements to the <DocComment> section:

<Alt-Separator  value="/** " />
<Alt-LineHeader value=" * " />
<Alt-SeparatorB value=" */" />

You can set any text for the Separator (top line of the comment block), SeparatorB (bottom line of the comment block) and LineHeader (prefix for all lines within the block). If the separators and/or line prefix are not used, you must set value="(None)"

The comments can be read from DocXml or Doxygen format, and will be converted into your configured 'primary' format (whether that is Doxygen or DocXml. If the format is the same, then it will simply be converted from an old block style to a new style). The standard tags (summary/brief, returns/return, seealso/sa etc) will be converted automatically as required, including embedded tags like c/see. Any custom tags used in your old format will simply be treated as embedded text appended to the previous entry, unless they match a custom entry tag that you have added to your comment Templates in rules.xml - if a matching template entry tag is found, the old comment data will be converted to the new documentation style and inserted into the final block as dictated by that template.

In addition, Rules.xml contains a new section, <Conversions>, which tells AtomineerUtils how to convert the entries it finds. This can:

• Delete unwanted entries (e.g. delete '@ingroup' entirely)
• Rename entries (e.g. '@description' to '<remarks>')

For full details, see the comments in the Conversions section of the rules.

If an 'incorrect' entry is converted (such as a param or exception entry that describes a parameter or exception that is not present in the code), the entry will be converted correctly, but then added at the bottom of the new comment with '###' prepended ('deleted' entry), just as would happen if you removed that param/exception and updated an existing comment. If unwanted, just execute the DocComment command a second time to clean away these 'deleted' entries.

Note that if the old comment format diverges too far from what AtomineerUtils expects (such as using Doxygen aliases or custom DocXml elements not mentioned in the Conversions rules), the conversion may not work so well - you may need to 'tidy up' the comment (manually or perhaps using a Macro script) before/after applying the AtomineerUtils conversion.

For example, the following Doxygen comment uses the alternate format described by the prefs XML above, with Doxygen entries:

/**
  * @brief  This is the brief description
  * @returns true if it feels like it
  * @param exampleParam An example parameter.
  * @date 15/04/2010
  * @author Jason
  */

...and it is converted to the following DocXML (in this case, using the default AtomineerUtils format, with the entries rearranged in the order dictated by the default template):

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/// <summary>   This is the brief description. </summary>
/// <author>    Jason. </author>
/// <date>      15/04/2010. </date>
///
/// <remarks>   Jason Williams, 16/04/2010. </remarks>
///
/// <param name="exampleParam"> An example parameter. </param>
///
/// <returns>   true if it feels like it. </returns>
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Note that the author and date are recognised tags and thus preserved in the resulting comment - but if these are not set as 'legal' entries in your templates, they can be removed by simply executing ths DocComment command a second time to update the new comment. (Note also that the 'remarks' was not supplied, so a new auto-generated entry is added that records the author/date of the conversion). However, as you can see, AtomineerUtils does the bulk of the conversion work for you.

Command: Document all in this scope

This command searches a file, namespace, class, interface, struct, or enum scope and applies the Add Doc Comment command to each major code element within it. (Note that it does not recurse into nested (child) scopes (so you may have to run it several times to document a whole file if it contains several classes), and it does not yet handle all possible code elements (constants/variables, or header file declaraitons being the primary examples that I have yet to add support for)

Usage
To document all code elements at global scope in a file, place the cursor in the very first line of the file and execute the command.

To document all code elements within a specific scope, place the cursor in the declaration that introduces the scope (i.e. somewhere in the line with the 'namespace', 'class' (etc) text) and execute the command.

Description
When you execute the command, the code within the next scope (from the '{' following the cursor position) will be scanned for child code elements to document. The Add Doc Comment command will be executed on each, adding or updating the comment in the usual way. Each will generate a new undo step.

This can be used in the following ways:

• Quickly and easily build the documentation structure for all the entries in an enum definition,
• Convert existing comments (e.g. in the Visual Studio default XmlDoc /// format) into the configured AtomineerUtils format,
• Quickly update existing documentation after changing the AtomineerUtils block format or preferences,
• Automate an initial documentation pass.

After executing this command it is highly recommended that you read through and update the resulting documentation to be sure that it is complete, correct and accurate.

Command: Create C# or C++/CLI Property, Create C++ Access Methods

C++: Creates simple inlined "Get" and "Set" methods to access a member variable, making it much quicker and easier to make members private and properly encapsulate your class data.

C++/CLI: Creates a Property for your member variable, implementing default get/set methods.

C# (VS2005): Creates a Property for your member variable, implementing default get/set methods, and adding handy debugger attributes.

C# (VS2008/2010): Augments the VS2005 behaviour with a two-stage conversion. It will convert a member variable into an auto-property, and convert an auto-property into an explicitly implemented property with a backing field.

Usage
In your C++ header or C# class, place the cursor anywhere in the middle of a member variable or auto-property declaration, then invoke the appropriate command.

Description
A preference option (see below) is available that specifies the style of the member variables that are consumed and created by this command. However, a variable need not match the template to be processed correctly - it may have a lower-case first character, or an underscore as a prefix/suffix (e.g. 'variable', '_variable', 'Variable_', 'mVariable' or 'm_Variable').

C++: Get and Set methods will be created, and inserted into the document above the preceeding "public/protected/private:" tag. For known simple types (int, float, etc) the accessors will pass by value. For unknown types, it assumes complex types (struct/class) and will pass by const-reference. The names used for the getter/setter can be configured in the preferences.

C++/CLI: A property is defined, and inserted into the document above the preceeding "public/protected/private:" tag.

C# 2005: A property is defined, and is inserted immediately above the member variable declaration. The protection level for the variable will be changed to private, and the Property will use the protection level previously assigned to the variable (or public if it was private).

It also adds attributes to improve debugging of the property (stops the debugger single-stepping into the property get/set function, and hides the member variable in the Locals window so that you don't end up with the property and the member variable both being displayed alongside each other). (A using System.Diagnostics; will be automatically added as well if required)

C# 2008/2010: When executed on a member variable, it is converted into an auto-property. When executed on an auto-property, it is converted into an explicitly implemented property with a backing field. The backing field will use the variable naming style configured in the preferences.

You can convert from a member variable to an explicit implementation by just executing the command twice in succession.

A preference is provided to allow you to set a template for the backing field naming style. For an auto-property called 'MyProp', the default (a blank prefix) is to generate a backing field 'myProp'. With a template specified, other styles (e.g. '_MyProp', 'm_MyProp' 'mMyProp', '_Member_MyProp_' can be generated.

Note that debugger attributes are not added in VS2008/2010, as these IDEs provide much better debugger stepping facilities, so the attributes are no longer necessary.

public:
private:
  int      mInteger;
  MyClass  mComplexClass;

public:
  int GetInteger(void) const                         { return(mInteger);             };
  void SetInteger(int Integer)                       { mInteger = Integer;           };

  const MyClass &GetComplexClass(void) const         { return(mComplexClass);        };
  void SetComplexClass(const MyClass &ComplexClass)  { mComplexClass = ComplexClass; };

private:
  int      mInteger;
  MyClass  mComplexClass;

public:
  property int Integer
  {
    int get()           { return(mInteger); }
    void set(int value) { mInteger = value; }
  }

  property const MyClass& ComplexClass
  {
    const MyClass& get()           { return(mComplexClass); }
    void set(const MyClass& value) { mComplexClass = value; }
  }

private:
  int      mInteger;
  MyClass  mComplexClass;

public int Integer
{
   [DebuggerStepThrough] get { return(mInteger); }
   [DebuggerStepThrough] set { mInteger = value; }
}

[DebuggerBrowsable(DebuggerBrowsableState.Never)]
private int mInteger;

// Original variable
private int mSpeed;

// After one execution, an auto-property
public int Speed { get; set; }

// After the second execution, an explicit property with backing field
public int Speed
{
    get { return(mSpeed); }
    set { mSpeed = value; }
}
private int mSpeed;

Command: Implement/Declare C++ method

(C++ only)
This command allows you to:

• Create a skeleton implementation of a method from its header declaration.
• Add a header declaration for an existing implementation.

Usage
Place the cursor into the first line of a function declaration/implementation and invoke the command.

Description
When executed in a header (.h) file:
This converts the declaration for a method in the header, and any contiguous block of single-line comments preceeding it, into a skeleton implementation and a full documentation comment, which are appended to the source (.cpp) file.

• All default parameters and modifiers like "static" are stripped from the implementation
• Any block of C++ single-line comments immediately above the function are concatenated into a single line and moved into the description field in the header
• A skeleton function body is appended, and in the case of simple types, a simple default return value is provided.
• A documentstion comment is atuomatically generated, and the text cursor is left in the summary section.

When executed in a source (.cpp) file:
This adds a declaration for the method in the header (.h) file. Where possible, AtomineerUtils will locate the correct namespace/class to add the declaration into. The new declaration is inserted at the bottom of the class.

For this command to work, the .cpp and .h file must have a common filename, and both be part of your Visual Studio Project.

Header declaration:

// Creates a new Thingummy containing the required number of Wotsits
Thingummy *CreateThingummy(CreateInfo *pInfo, int NumWotsits = 12) const;

Resulting source file implementation (with doxygen-style comment)

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/// \fn	Thingummy *MyClass::CreateThingummy(CreateInfo *pInfo, int NumWotsits)
///			
/// \author	Jason Williams
/// \date	6/6/2005
///
/// \brief	Creates a new Thingummy containing the required number of Wotsits
///
/// \param	pInfo		If non-NULL, the information
/// \param	NumWotsits	The number of wotsits
///
/// \retval	NULL if it fails, else
///
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Thingummy *MyNamespace::MyClass::CreateThingummy(CreateInfo *pInfo, int NumWotsits) const
{

  return(NULL);
}

Command: Open C/C++ Source or Header

When executed in a C/C++ source/header file, opens the matching header/source file.

Usage
Execute the command when you are working in a C/C++ header or source file.

Description
When executed in a C/C++ source/header file, this simply opens the matching header/source file. The files must be in the same project, and use the same base filename.

Command: Hide DocComments using Outlining

Uses Visual Studio's Outlining feature to hide all DocXml Comments in your code.

Usage
Execute the command at any time, or have it automatically executed whenever you open a code document by enabling the preference.

Description
This command hides all multi-line DocComments (lines beginning with ///) in your file using the Outlining feature of the Visual Studio Editor. This allows you to see 'just the code' without the comments interfering with your view. To see the text of the comments, just hover the mouse over the [...] to show a tool-tip. To edit a comment, double-click the [...] to re-display the outlined text.

Command: Hide Attributes using Outlining

Uses Visual Studio's Outlining feature to hide Attributes in your C# code.

Usage
Execute the command at any time, or have it automatically executed whenever you open a code document by enabling the preference.

Description
This command hides all C# Attributes in your file using the Outlining feature of the Visual Studio Editor. This allows you to see 'just the code' without the attributes interfering with your view. To see the text of the attributes, just hover the mouse over the [...] to show a tool-tip. To edit the attribute, double-click the [...] to re-display the outlined text.

Command: Copy As Text

Copies selected text onto the clipboard in a simple, clean format for use in other programs.

Usage
Just as with a regular copy: Select the text you wish to copy and execute the command. If no text is selected, the entire line containing the cursor will be copied.

Description
When you copy text from Visual Studio to other applications, it includes colour codes for the syntax colouring scheme. This is not very useful when you want to put the text into a document that will be printed or emailed, especially if you use a non-white background colour! Additionally, Visual Studio copies the text verbatim - including surplus indentation that pushes your text to the right when pasted, and Tab characters that can cause the formatting to become a complete mess.

This command addresses all of these issues by copying the selected text in your document to the clipboad as plain text. It (optionally) strips unnecessary indentation from the block, and (optionally) converts tabs into spaces.

Note that for the formatting to appear correct in the pasted text, you must display it using a monospaced font (e.g. Courier New).

Command: Word wrap comment

Word-wraps the text in a comment block.

Usage
Place the cursor anywhere inside a // comment block (that spans one or more lines). Invoke this command. (Note that the Add Doc Comment command also does this, to save having to use another keypress, but this command is included so that it can be used in isolation and (e.g. from macros) if preferred)

Description
The text in the current //-style comment block will be word-wrapped according to the preferences in the DocComment section of the AtomineerUtils options.

Other Menu Items

AtomineerUtils Options...
Shows a dialog for setting the AtomineerUtils Preferences.

Help and User Guide...
Opens the latest version of this User Guide page (direct from the AtomineerUtils website) in your default Internet Browser.

Check for updates...
Accesses the AtomineerUtils website to determine if a newer version is available for download. (Note: This currently does not work if your PC is behind a Proxy Server. I hope to rectify this soon).

About AtomineerUtils...
Shows a dialog providing information on AtomineerUtils, the installed version, and the number of times you have used it.

SuppressUI and AllowUI commands

Suppress user-interface prompting to allow execution from a Visual Studio macro.

Usage
The SuppressUI and AllowUI commands are only available to macros (and hotkeys). They suppress or allow reporting of any problems via information dialogs. Suppression of this UI allows macros to automate execution of AtomineerUtils commands without being stalled by dialogs popping up.

Just include the following commands at the start and end of your macro:

    DTE.ExecuteCommand("Atomineer.Utils.Commands.SuppressUI")

    ... your macro here ...

    DTE.ExecuteCommand("Atomineer.Utils.Commands.AllowUI")

• The first combo box controls how single and multiple-line entries are formatted into the comment. A picture explains these options best - see these examples. As you change these options, a preview is shown at the bottom of the window so you can see the effect.
• The second combo box applies the same rules to groups of similar entries (such as parameter lists).
• Add whitespace between entry tags and text. By default, AtomineerUtils tries to make comments easy to read by adding whitespace at the start and ends of entries. When unchecked, AtomineerUtils will strip off any whitespace at the ends of the tag.
• Start each entry with a Tab character (rather than a space). By default, AtomineerUtils is set up to make it easy to write comments. After the opening tag of a comment, it inserts a tab character so that when you press return to add a new line, you can quickly tab to the start column to write a block of text easily. However, if you prefer, a space can be used. This reduces the whitespace in the comments, at the cost of having to type more characters to line up subsequent text tidily.
• Start all entries in a block at the same text column. If you have a 'block' of similar entries (e.g. a param list) AtomineerUtils will normally indent the entry text for all the items to line up at the same column. This significantly improves readability, but can result in a lot of wasted space. Disable this option to just format each entry in isolation.
• Add blank lines between entries. You can control where blank lines are inserted between entries in your comments in the templates in Rules.xml. However if you simply wish to eradicate all blank lines, this option overrides the template to stop them being inserted.
• Word wrap can be enabled or disabled. Additionally, you can set the column at which wrap occurs, and whether that column is absolute (from left edge of page) or relative (from the left hand side of the comment block)

Advanced Customisation tab
The style and layout of doc comments, and the auto-doc text generated can be radically customised by editing the AtomineerUtils Rules. These are described in a simple XML-based form. Rather than editing the raw Rules.xml file, this Options tab allows you to customise specific parts of the rules independently in a set of xml files.

At the top of the tab, you may set the Rules Search Paths, which contol where AtomineerUtils will look for customisations, allowing you to store these additional files in Source Control ort a shared network drive.

Below this are a number of buttons. Each allows you to export one section of the rules to a custom file, and then edit it. (By adding customisations in this way, the AtomineerUtils installer can overwrite the default rules without losing your custom rules). The first time you click each button, the rules section will be exported to a separate file in the first folder listed on your Rules Search Path. If the search path is not set, they will be exported in the AtomineerUtils install folder. Once customised, the button text will turn green and clicking it will simply open the custom rules for editing.

Each customisation file contains a lot of XML comments and examples that show you how to write your own rules to augment the default AtomineerUtils behaviour.

The last section of this Tab allows you to move the storage location for the block comment style preferences into a set of custom files. These preferences will continue to be edited as normal in the preferences dialog, but will now be stored on your Rules Path, making it possible for them to be held under Source Control. You can move these files anywhere you like as long as they can be found on the Rules Path you set at the top of the Tab.

More information on custom templates and rules can be found below.

Live Preview pane

This section (at the bottom of the three Doc Comment tabs) shows an example comment, illustrating the sort of style you can expect from the settings you have chosen. It updates live as you change the preferences. Note that this is a guide only, but it will give you a fairly reasonable idea of how the real comments will appear.

Source Outlining tab
Documentation comments can be collapsed/hidden using Visual Studio's Outlining feature. These options control how and when outlining occurs:

• Choose to automatically apply outlining for all files as they are opened
• Hide the entire comment, or leave the first line visible
• Remove or retain the whitespace between the comment and the code element

A similar set of options are available when outlining Attributes

• Choose to automatically apply outlining for all files as they are opened
• Remove or retain the whitespace between the atribute and the code element

Misc tab
This contains the preferences for several of the simpler commands, as well as general AtomineerUtils preferences.

'Menu Items' allows you to hide menu items for AtomineerUtils commands that you don't use. Why clutter the VS menus with options you never use? This just helps to keep the user interface clean and useful.

'Copy as Plain Text command' allows you to control the format of the text that Copy As Text will place on the clipboard.

Doc Comment Rules and Templates

The DocComment output of AtomineerUtils is extremely configurable via a set of simple Xml files. Locate the default file in your "My Documents" folder (or the install location you chose in the AtomineerUtils installer - just run the installer again to see where it is installed) under:

My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Addins\AtomineerUtils\Rules.xml

The rules are very simple yet powerful. Usage of the rules is heavily documented within this Xml file to allow you to augment the rules for yourself.

The rules fall into three main groups:

• Templates. Each template defines the comment block layout to use for a given type of code element, allowing you to specify exactly what information is expected in the comments for (e.g.) methods, properties and classes.
• AutoDoc rules. These describe how to generate auto documentation for different code element types (classes, structs, enums, exceptions, methods, properties, return codes, parameters, etc). You can easily augment the default logic to add new automatic documentation based on the names and types relating to each code element, to allow AtomineerUtils to recognise and support the naming conventions you use.
• Abbreviation expansions. This section allows AtomineerUtils to expand abbreviations to full English terms (e.g. "src" -> "source") to produce more readable auto-doc commenting.

To add your own custom rules, you could edit Rules.xml directly, but this would mean that you would need to merge your edits every time you upgraded AtomineerUtils. To avoid this, you can customise the rules more easily, by providing your own rules in additional xml files. Every section of the rules.xml can be saved as a new XML file of the same name, and the rules it contains will be executed before the rules in rules.xml. The full set of customisation files that can be added is:

• UserVariables.xml
• DocXmlTemplates.xml
• DoxygenTemplates.xml
• File.xml
• Namespace.xml
• Exceptions.xml
• Typedefs.xml
• Variables.xml
• Classes.xml
• Interfaces.xml
• Methods.xml
• MethodReturns.xml
• Parameters.xml
• TypeParameters.xml
• WordExpansions.xml

For convenience, the AtomineerUtils Options dialog provides buttons that will create these files for you automatically, and open them for editing. The files contain a lot of comments and examples that will show you how to write custom rules of your own.

The file contents should be in exactly the same format as the corresponding section of rules.xml. For example, you can augment the method documentation with a Methods.xml containing the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Methods>
	<If name="SelfDestruct" desc="Starts a 5-minute countdown before the computer explodes."/>
</Methods>

Keeping custom preferences and rules in Source Control
For easier team deployment you may wish to check your rules into your source control system. AtomineerUtils Pro has a Rules Search Path preference that allows you to relocate your custom rules/prefs files anywhere you wish. In the AtomineerUtils Options, just enter one or more paths separated by semicolons (e.g. "C:\Code; D:\Code") and you can move your custom files to those locations and check them into Source Control.

If you augment the rules, please consider emailing me your updated rules file for possible inclusion into following releases.