On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 6:17 PM, David Goldsmith <[email protected]>wrote:

> On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 4:59 PM, Charles R Harris <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 2:11 PM, David Goldsmith <[email protected]
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 11:01 AM, Charles R Harris <
>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi All,
>>>>
>>>> I'm wondering if we could extend the current documentation format to the
>>>> c source code. The string blocks would be implemented something like
>>>>
>>>> /**NpyDoc
>>>> """The Answer.
>>>>
>>>> Answer the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
>>>>
>>>> Parameters
>>>> ----------
>>>> We don't need no stinkin' parameters.
>>>>
>>>> Notes
>>>> -----
>>>> The run time of this routine may be excessive.
>>>>
>>>> """
>>>> */
>>>> int
>>>> answer_ultimate_question(void)
>>>> {
>>>>     return 42;
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> and the source scanned to generate the usual documentation. Thoughts?
>>>>
>>>> Chuck
>>>>
>>>
>>> IMO it would be necessary to make such doc have the same status w.r.t.
>>> the Wiki as the Python source; how much tweaking of pydocweb would that
>>> require (Pauli is already over-committed in that regard; Joe, Perry, and I
>>> are taking steps to try to alleviate this, but nothing is close to
>>> materializing yet).  I know that as far as Joe and I are concerned, getting
>>> pydocweb to support a dual review process is a much higher, longer-standing
>>> priority.
>>>
>>> Also, quoting from the docstring standard: "An optional section for
>>> examples...while optional, this section is very strongly encouraged."
>>> (Personally, I think this section should be required, not optional, for
>>> functions, and methods which require their own docstrings.)  But requiring
>>> docwriters to supply working (i.e., compilable, linkable, runable) c code
>>> examples (which would appear to be necessary because the coders appear to be
>>> loath to provide their docstrings with examples) might be asking too much
>>> (since we try to keep the doc writing effort open to persons at least
>>> comfortable w/ Python, though not necessarily w/ c).
>>>
>>> Unless and until these concerns can be realistically and successfully
>>> addressed, I'm a strong "-1".
>>>
>>>
>> I'm not interested in having this part of the standard user documentation
>> since the  c functions are mostly invisible to the user. What I want is
>> documentation for maintainers/developers of the c code. The c code is
>> essentially undocumented and that makes it difficult to work with,
>> especially for new people. At one time in the past I suggested using doxygen
>> but that didn't seem to arouse much interest. I've also tried generating a
>> call graph but only managed to crash the system... Anyway, it needs to be
>> done at some point and I'm looking for suggestions.
>>
>> Chuck
>>
>> Not checking in un-/poorly documented new code would be a good start.
>
>
So exactly how should the c code be documented? There is currently no
documentation standard for c code.

Chuck
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