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Doxygen VS clang

Compare Doxygen VS clang and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Doxygen logo Doxygen

Generate documentation from source code

clang logo clang

C, C++, Objective C and Objective C++ front-end for the LLVM compiler.
  • Doxygen Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-30
  • clang Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-08-01

Doxygen features and specs

  • Comprehensive Documentation
    Doxygen supports a wide range of languages and can generate detailed, organized documentation for various types of codebases, including class hierarchies, collaboration diagrams, and more.
  • Automatic Code Parsing
    Doxygen automatically parses the code and extracts relevant comments, which helps in creating accurate and up-to-date documentation without much manual intervention.
  • Customizable Output
    Doxygen allows customization of the output format with several templates, enabling developers to generate documentation in HTML, LaTeX, RTF, and other formats.
  • Integration with Other Tools
    Doxygen integrates well with other tools such as Graphviz for generating diagrams, and it can be incorporated into continuous integration pipelines to ensure documentation is always current.
  • Open Source
    Doxygen is open-source software, meaning it is free to use and has a community of contributors that may add features or fix issues over time.

Possible disadvantages of Doxygen

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its extensive features and customization options, Doxygen can be quite complex to set up and use effectively, especially for beginners.
  • Performance Issues
    For very large codebases, Doxygen can be slow in processing and generating the documentation, which might be a limitation for some projects.
  • Limited Support for Non-Standard Code Constructs
    Doxygen may have difficulties interpreting non-standard code constructs or highly complex code, which could lead to incomplete or inaccurate documentation.
  • Dependency on Code Comments
    The quality and usefulness of the generated documentation heavily depend on the thoroughness and clarity of the comments within the code, requiring disciplined commenting practices.
  • Outdated Documentation
    If not regularly maintained and regenerated, the produced documentation can become outdated as the codebase evolves, leading to potential misinformation.

clang features and specs

  • High Performance
    Clang is known for its fast compilation time and efficient use of memory, which makes it ideal for large projects that require frequent builds.
  • Modular Design
    The modular design of Clang allows developers to easily integrate it with other tools and projects. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for custom compilers and IDEs.
  • Expressive Diagnostics
    Clang provides highly detailed and easy-to-understand error and warning messages, which help developers quickly identify and fix coding issues.
  • LLVM Infrastructure
    Being a part of the LLVM project, Clang benefits from a robust and active community. It gets frequent updates and improvements, keeping it at the forefront of compiler technology.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Clang supports multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. This makes it a versatile choice for cross-platform development projects.

Possible disadvantages of clang

  • Limited Legacy Support
    Clang may not support some older or obscure language extensions that other compilers, like GCC, might handle. This can be an issue when working with legacy codebases.
  • Evolving Ecosystem
    As part of a rapidly evolving ecosystem, Clang can introduce breaking changes or deprecations that require developers to frequently update their code.
  • Resource Intensive
    Although Clang is efficient, the compilation of very large codebases might require significant system resources, potentially straining less powerful systems.
  • Less Mature in Certain Areas
    Compared to GCC, Clang can be less mature in handling certain language features or optimizations, especially in newer or less common use cases.

Analysis of Doxygen

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Doxygen is considered a good tool, especially for projects where maintaining documentation is crucial. Its ability to integrate with various development environments and version control systems, along with its configurability and range of output formats, makes it a robust choice for automatically generating up-to-date project documentation.

Why this product is good

  • Doxygen is a widely used tool for generating documentation from annotated C++ sources, and it supports other programming languages including C, Objective-C, C#, PHP, Java, Python, IDL (Corba and Microsoft flavors), Fortran, VHDL, and D. It is valuable for its ability to extract code structure and comments to produce comprehensive documentation in various formats like HTML, LaTeX, and RTF. It also has support for generating diagrams and cross-references, which improves documentation readability and navigation.

Recommended for

  • Developers working in medium to large codebases that need robust documentation.
  • Teams using C++ or any of the supported languages who want to ensure their code documentation is consistently updated and accessible.
  • Projects where it is crucial to have an easily navigable documentation site with features like search, diagrams, and cross-references.
  • Open source projects that want to maintain high-quality, automatically generated documentation.

Doxygen videos

Doxygen

clang videos

Use Clang on Windows, Linux, and macOS

More videos:

  • Review - The Clang Swordsman
  • Review - CLANG AND BANG: BI'S AND TRI'S FOR DAYS!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Doxygen and clang)
Documentation
100 100%
0% 0
IDE
0 0%
100% 100
Documentation As A Service & Tools
Text Editors
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Doxygen and clang

Doxygen Reviews

Best 25 Software Documentation Tools 2023
Doxygen is a popular documentation generator tool that is commonly used in software development projects to automatically generate documentation from source code comments.
Source: www.uphint.com
Introduction to Doxygen Alternatives In 2021
Doxygen is the software application for developing paperwork from illustrated C++ sources, but other programming languages like C, C#, Objective-C, UNO/OpenOffice, PHP, Java, IDL of Corba, Python, and Microsoft, VHDL, Fortran are also supported. From a collection of recorded source files, user can develop an HTML online documents web browser and an offline referral manual....
Source: www.webku.net
Doxygen Alternatives
Doxygen is the software for creating documentation from illustrated C++ sources, but other programming languages like C, C#, Objective-C, UNO/OpenOffice, PHP, Java, IDL of Corba, Python, and Microsoft, VHDL, Fortran are also supported. From a collection of documented source files, user can create an HTML online documentation browser and an offline reference manual. It also...
Source: www.educba.com
Doxygen Alternatives
Since the documentation is directly extracted from the sources, it is a lot less difficult to maintain the compatibility between the source code and the documentation. Having said that, this tax has a few problems with it. Therefore, I have compiled a list of some of the other options available to you besides Doxygen.

clang Reviews

We have no reviews of clang yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, clang seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 13 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Doxygen mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Doxygen yet. Tracking of Doxygen recommendations started around Mar 2021.

clang mentions (13)

  • dotnet cross-platform interop with C via Environment.ProcessId system call
    I want to compile C program for various operating systems from one machine, that's why on macOS M1 I use zig drop-in replacement compiler (can be used on Linux, Windows too) for cross-platform compilation. There are also clang, gcc (usually pre-installed on macOS and Linux). For Windows there are Visual Studio installer or mingw (which installs gcc). - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • S2S Compilers: Understanding Switch Case Statements
    If you are turning your source code into languages such as C or C++, it is required to have great understanding and knowledge of C/C++. Since these languages also have compilers be it GNU Compiler Collection or Clang, we have to do a lot of digging and researching around their features and functionalities. There is a lot of benefit in that once the target codebase grows and developers start reusing the target... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Ready to miss a semi colon and spend the next hour stressing over what went wrong?
    Clang is an LLVM based C compiler that "allows better diagnostics, better integration with IDEs, a license that is compatible with commercial products, and a nimble compiler that is easy to develop and maintain," compared to other options. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Alternatives of MinGW for MacOS
    VS Code is not an IDE. It's simply an editor without any built-in compiler tools. So you MUST use "other compiler" (and bintools) anyway. As I said, Apple's official C/C++ compiler is LLVM-Clang, which offers even better optimization in some tasks. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • What is the point of free and open source software?
    One illustration of this came in 2015 when Stallman decided he Would rather prevent the Gnu Compiler Collection from supporting modern IDE features like symbol completion, than allow GCC front ends to be paired with free-but-not-copyleft backends like LLVM and Clang: "Since LLVM and Clang are not copylefted, they invite nonfree extensions. They are a gaping hole in the defensive wall around our city." Allowing... - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Doxygen and clang, you can also consider the following products

GitBook - Modern Publishing, Simply taking your books from ideas to finished, polished books.

GNU Compiler Collection - The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting...

DocFX - A documentation generation tool for API reference and Markdown files!

LLVM - LLVM is a compiler infrastructure designed for compile-time, link-time, run-time, and...

MkDocs - Project documentation with Markdown.

PyCharm - Python & Django IDE with intelligent code completion, on-the-fly error checking, quick-fixes, and much more...