Can anyone explain to me why Javadoc is so limited compared to Doxygen? I come from C++ background and I am relatively new to Java so maybe I am missing something here?<p><p>
My issues with Javadoc are as follows:
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1) Why do I have to type explicitly {@link} tags? Doxygen will pick-up code references automatically and is smart enough not to produce duplicate links within the same comment.
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2) Why do I have to use HTML for simple editing? I think it's ludicrous that I need to pollute my code with HTML paragraph tags - Javadoc could very easily interpret an empty line as the start of a paragraph like Doxygen does.
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3) Why doesn't Javadoc produce class graphs? I realise there are 3rd party doclets/plugins/tools that do this but they aren't part of standard Javadoc. Doxygen will automatically produce class inheritance and collaboration charts for every documented class. It also provides a very nice class overview class diagram.
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4) There is no 4 - I have many more gripes but I have mentioned enough to get my point across.
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While I do have the option of using Doxygen for documenting my Java source code, I'd prefer to stick with the standard and even if I did switch I doubt my collages would approve.
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The ultimate point of this post is to determine whether these features are missing due to some Java philosophy or design decision. I am already assuming the insistence of paragraph tags is something to do with some grand philosophy to embrace HTML - is that true?