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Introduction

When working with R, I loved how Roxygen lets you generate clean documentation directly from comments in your source code. But I often wished there was something similar for every language, not just R. That’s why I built simple_doc: a lightweight documentation tool that works on any codebase.

The Idea

Instead of maintaining separate README files, wiki pages, or doc websites, you can write structured comments directly in your code. simple_doc then parses those comments and generates clean, human-readable documentation automatically.

How It Works

In your code, you add special annotations (inspired by Roxygen style):

// @T dcauchy
// @U std::vector<double> dcauchy(std::vector<double> 
// @U &x, double location = 0, double scale = 1)
// @D Returns the probability distribution of the Cauchy distribution.
// @A x : vector of values
// @A location : center of the distribution
// @A scale : scale parameter
// @E Example usage
// @X

simple_doc reads these annotations and generates documentation with:

Function signatures
Parameter descriptions
Examples
Explanations

It’s language-agnostic: it doesn’t matter if you’re writing in C++, Python, R, or something else — as long as you include the tags, simple_doc can parse them.

Why It’s Useful

Universal: works across programming languages.
Lightweight: no heavy framework, just annotated comments.
Automatic: one command generates docs for your entire project.
Close to the code: documentation stays right where you define functions, so it’s harder to forget updating it.

Example

After running simple_doc, you get nicely structured documentation that could be rendered into HTML. It is worth mentioning that special characters like < and > must be coded into < and > for a good conversion.

Example here in the README.md: https://github.com/julienlargetpiet/fulgurance/

Another example, the annotated C++ function above becomes:

dcauchy
--------
Usage:
  std::vector<double> dcauchy(std::vector<double> &x,
                              double location = 0,
                              double scale = 1)

Description:
  Returns the probability distribution of the Cauchy distribution.

Arguments:
  x         vector of values
  location  center of the distribution
  scale     scale parameter

Example:
  dcauchy({-2, -1, 0, 1, 2});

Conclusion

With simple_doc, you can generate clear, structured documentation for any codebase without leaving your source files. It’s like Roxygen, but universal. The result: less friction, more consistent docs, and a smoother workflow across all your projects.

👉 Try it out here: GitHub Repository: simple_doc

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