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Given a huge (3rd party) library with hundreds of classes and interfaces, I find it hard to follow Javadoc to:
- keep track of class hierarchy,
- compare/contrast related classes/interfaces.

The goal is to find out the differences, understand what a class/interface does/doesn't do, so as to be able to use the library correctly and efficiently.

Is there currently a tool that takes a javadoc of a given class/interface, generate its hierarchy diagram, and compare/contrast the differences b/t a child and its parents/grandparents/siblings?

Of course, this can be done manually, but is every time-consuming. Is there a more effective way to do this? Thank you.

EDIT:
- I should add that I don't have access to the library's source code.
- The library is given in a jar with scantily-worded javadoc (just class/interface/method signatures, somewhat meaningful names and some descriptions).

Martin08
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  • Doxygen is maybe a good tool to look at instead of Javadoc, this question deals with it: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/225447/doxygen-vs-javadoc – sjr Jan 26 '11 at 18:47

2 Answers2

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Yes, it's possible to create diagrams of the relationships of classes through reverse-engineering. Here's a tutorial on reverse-engineering source code to produce UML diagrams: http://java.dzone.com/articles/reverse-engineer-source-code-u

Saggio
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I haven't heard of such a tool, but what you can do (at least in Eclipse, but probably in all the other IDEs as well) is to attach the javadoc to the library you imported in your project. That way you can use the IDEs navigation/tree display features while reading the javadoc.

I know this isn't exactly the answer you were expecting but I hope it helps.

biziclop
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