= XML Code Documentation =
In the past we used NDoc to create API documentation of our sources. The NDoc project has been abandoned in 2007, but thankfully Microsoft has finally released a tool called 'Sandcastle' to generate help text from Visual Studio XML code comments.

This section explains how to generate EwE6 API help files from the EwE6 source code projects.

 * Download and install Sandcastle [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E82EA71D-DA89-42EE-A715-696E3A4873B2&displaylang=en here]
 * Sandcastle has no GUI front-end. For this, download and install Sandcastle Help File Builder [http://www.codeplex.com/SHFB here]

Once Sandcastle and Sandcastle help file builder are installed, you can generate the EwE6 API help file:

 * Open Sandcastle Help File Builder and load the EwE6 help file project. This project is included with the EwE6 sources at Ecopath6\Sources\Documentation\EwECore.shfbproj
 * To Build documentation, Click on Documentation > Build Project
 * To View documentation, Click on Documentation > View Help File > View Help File

The EwE6 API code documentation is automatically generated on a daily basis and is posted online. You can accessed this information  [http://webservice.ecopath.org/Ecopath/Help/Index.aspx here].

= Links = 
Lots of information is available on XML tags supported in Visual Studio. A few comprehensive links are:
 * [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc302121.aspx XML comments overview] - Microsoft XML comments primer in C# syntax, with detailed info on sub-tags such as <list type="...">. A good read.
 * [http://www.codeproject.com/KB/XML/csharpcodedocumentation.aspx XML comments guidelines] - XML comments usage guidelines
 * [http://elegantcode.com/2008/04/01/inline-xml-code-documentation-using-sandcastle/ Another overview] - Somebody else did a much better job at providing an overview than I ;-)

= Bloody handy but under-documented features =
A few handy-dandy experiences that we want to share:
 * !SandCastle supports the <[http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=sw#hl=en&q=%22visual+studio%22+xml+inheritdoc+tag+&meta=&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=1&cad=b inheritdoc cref="..."]/> tag, which is a life saver!