The way that VS handles XML documentation seems hardcoded.

Right now, when you add XML comments, there is some kind of hardcoded "pseudoDTD" that IntelliSense uses to suggest tags when you type "/// <". VS doesn't confine you to the XML tags it expects, though.

Hopefully, in a future version of VS, Microsoft will recognize that developers need to extend and customize their use of XML in VS.

I would like to track a source file's revision history and have that revision history included in some of my generated documentation.

What I will be adding into Visual Studio will be <history> tags with <revision date="05/11/2004" author="DavidA"> child tags which wrap around free from comments. In the project properties, you can only specify the XML output file. An option to designate a DTD and one or more XSLTs for output documentation would be great. Adding such a feature shouldn't be too hard since the necessary classes already exist in C#. If enough developers request it, Microsoft will implement it.

Visual Studio lets you put in any well-formed XML that you want. To customize the output, you have to code your own DTD and XSLT. If you like VS' HTML output, you will have to try to talk Microsoft into sharing their XSLT so that you can customize it, or you will need to reverse engineer it and tweak it.

I would rather Microsoft provide an XSLT and DTD that I could use as templates and have VS generate the output directly from the IDE. That way, you could get the full benefits of XML by making multiple use of your XML data: generating in-house documentation, an API for outside class clients, an intranet site for reference within the department, and all the other flexibility that XML provides.

Microsoft has embraced XML, time for Visual Studio to kiss XML on the lips.