Description Ben Rowlands 2006-11-12 09:27:23 EST

If I want to add a literal XML snippet to a javadoc comment I can place the XML inside a <pre> tag. Eclipse escapes the '<' and' '>' correctly but insists on indenting the XML to the right each time I reformat the source code. 

For example, if I type:

/**
 *  <pre>
 *    <foo/>
 *  </pre>
 */

After formatting it becomes:

/**
 * <pre>
 *  &lt;foo/&gt;
 * </pre>
 */

However subsequent re-formatting of the source file indents the XML to the each time. So after 3 reformattings, the javadoc becomes:

/**
 * <pre>
 *     &lt;foo/&gt;
 * </pre>
 */

This is very anoying as the spaces are *inside* the pre tag so show up in the generated javadocs. Additionally if the build processes includes a step to clean the source code using the formatter each build intends the line!

Note, my source formatter preferences have the following options enabled:

  * Format HTML tags
  * Format Java code snippets

Can the javadoc formatter be made smart enough not to indent the text if it is XML?

Note, if I disable the option "Format Java code snippet" the line is *not* indented (but neither is it escaped; and I really want to have Java code snippets formatted in addition to the ability to add XML examples, for example to show configuration examples or example XML output).