Doxygen comments for private members and free functions?

Question

Should I use Doxygen comments for private members and free functions? I come from the Java world, and I never added Javadoc for private members. Is this an acceptable practice in the C++ world?

Answer 1

I'd say it's pretty much language independent issue. You document members you want to have documented.

Answer 2

Depends on the documentation target audience. If it's for public release, then no, they don't need to know about private and internal variables.

If it's for internal usage, then yes, they surely need to know about the usage of private variables and free functions.

Answer 3

You can document private functions - we do and use @internal to provide public and developer documentation.

We also use a private implementation practice where implementations are hidden from the user.