By my count JsDoc Toolkit implements twice as many tags as the current posted SDoc specification, and JsDoc Toolkit allows for custom tags to be defined as well, so how is SDoc considered “richer” exactly?

I’ve now been on two projects that merge JavaScriptMVC with other packaged UI components (jQuery and YUI).

Before using hub, the interaction points between different libraries was, as I put it in one email, like stitching Angelina Jolie’s head on Jessica Alba’s body. Yes, it will look alright. But there is this huge distracting scar. In terms of JavaScript, that scar is where one library needs to interact with another library.

If libraries, and especially packaged UI components, start providing standard methods of inter-operating, it makes building frakensiten apps more appealing.

Now that we’ve we’ve started using or inserting hub hook points into the code those scars are almost un-noticeable.

Now there is a tool to convert that to the OpenAjax Metadata: http://jqueryjs.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/tools/openAjaxMetadata/

Its not complete yet and hasn’t really be tested with any IDE, but it basically provides all the metadata an IDE should need to provide inline documentation for jQuery.

To illuminate OpenAjax Metadata in the context of jQuery and John Resig… Here’s what OAA Metadata does (and why it’s valuable to you):

John documents jQuery’s APIs using SDoc. SDoc is a richer annotation scheme than that of JSDoc. SDoc is supported by Aptana Studio, but not supported by Dreamweaver, Visual Studio, or JSDT from Eclipse. However, SDoc can be transformed into OAA Metadata (and so can JSDoc) and Aptana, Dreamweaver, and VisualStudio and JSDT either already support OAA Metadata now (Aptana Studio 1.2 and I guess Dreamweaver based on Kevin Kynch’s announcement) or have stated they plan to (see minutes from the OAA meeting in October with Microsoft’s OAA representatative Bertrand Le Roy)

Accordingly, developers can get all the great code assist, data types, and documentation that can be derived from SDoc or JSDoc annotations (open source transformation tools for this are available from the OAA and are part of the project), and get that across their tool of choice.

Unlike the OAA Hub and OAA Registry, OAA Metadata is less about interoperability among ajax libraries, and more about how major IDE and development tools vendors can better support JavaScript and Ajax development and make it easier for folks like John R to get support for their libraries and code in a much wider array of tools.

-Kevin @ Aptana