I know there are many different standards for PHP code inline documentation. Here's what I mean by inline documentation, and please correct me if there is a better term:
/**
* This is the description for the class below.
*
* @package my-package
* @subpackage my-subpackage
* @author my-name
* @version my-version
* ...
*/
class orderActions {
...
What is the best and most widely-accepted form of inline documentation? In other words, what are those forms of inline documentation that everyone agrees on, and are not significantly based on opinions; the universally accepted forms of PHP in-line documentation that everyone should know about, but as a questioner, I'm not sure of yet, but after this question is answered, I will have a good overview of, not involving any particular opinions.
Are there any tools to auto-generate such documentation, or does it have to be done by hand?
I'm not interested in generating manuals -- I want to know how to generate the type of code commenting above, or "inline documentation."
PHPDoc, like what you've posted, is a widely accepted form of PHP documentation.
You can use Doxygen to auto-generate the docs.
Edit: In terms of generating in-line documentation in your code, I have never come across a tool that will go back and do this externally for a project. It's generally left in the realm of the IDE to generate a template while you code.
Eclipse actually does a decent job of this (it's one of the few things I like about Eclipse) and I believe Netbeans does as well. Any major IDE will likely have functionality to assist with this type of template generation.