How to use help to show documentation for pcode version of a MATLAB class

Hello,

I would like to generate p-code for a class file, and to have the MATLAB 'help' command actually return the help content that is generated from before the file was p-coded. Is this possible?

%
classdef SampleClass < handle
  % myClass   Summary of myClass
  % This is the first line of the description of myClass.
  % Descriptions can include multiple lines of text.
  %
  % myClass Properties:
  %    a - Description of a
  %    b - Description of b
  %
  % myClass Methods:
  %    doThis - Description of doThis
  %    doThat - Description of doThat

    properties
        RootProperty = 1;
    end

    methods

        function obj = SampleClass()
            obj.RootProperty = 4;
        end
    end

The output from the command line is this, before and after I delete the source file (the point is to secure the source file, but still have the help available):

>> help SampleClass

myClass   Summary of myClass
This is the first line of the description of myClass.
Descriptions can include multiple lines of text.

myClass Properties:
   a - Description of a
   b - Description of b

myClass Methods:
   doThis - Description of doThis
   doThat - Description of doThat

    Reference page for SampleClass

>> pcode('SampleClass.m')

>> delete('SampleClass.m')

>> help SampleClass

No help found for SampleClass.

>>

Answer 1

[Jan]

You can find many tools for this job in the FileExchange: FEX: Search "pcode help".

These tools crop the help section out of the M-function at first, P-code the contents of the function and create an M-file, which contains the help section only.

By the way, do not overestimate the security level of P-coding. You cannot read the code anymore, but reverse-engineering with the debugger is not too complicated. As long as you do not have a contract with your customers which forbid this, reverse-engineering is not illegal.

[Walter Roberson]

help always looks for the .m file to extract the documentation. It will never look inside the .p to see if there was help documentation available in the original .m .