Microsoft Assistance Markup Language (MAML) is an XML-based markup language developed by the
Microsoft User Assistance Platform team to provide online help for Microsoft products. Previously,
online help for Windows Microsoft Compiled HTML Help (.chm) files. The structured nature of MAML
allows for transformation into different presentation formats, such as HTML, plain text, and others.
MAML can be used with, or in place of, comment-based help. MAML is the only way to provide help for compiled in PowerShell.
Shortcomings
- Being XML, MAML is difficult to write and maintain.
- The MAML schema not well documented.
- Microsoft created an internal tool specifically for creating MAML files for PowerShell documentation, but it was never released to the public.
- Microsoft created the Sandcastle tool for authoring MAML files, but support for the tool was discontinued in October 2012.
- Sandcastle is now maintained by Eric Woodruff as an open source project.
- Microsoft no longer uses MAML for its own documentation.