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<section id="documentation">
<span id="id1"></span><h1>Documentation<a class="headerlink" href="#documentation" title="Link to this heading"></a></h1>
<p>It’s often helpful to leave information in your code about what you were
thinking when you wrote it.</p>
<p>This can help reduce the number of <a class="reference external" href="http://www.osnews.com/story/19266/WTFs_m">WTFs per minute</a> when reading it later.</p>
<p>There are two approaches to this in Python:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>Comments</p></li>
<li><p>Docstrings</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Comments in Python are much the same as any other programing language.</p>
<p>Docstrings are more unusual.</p>
<section id="comments">
<h2>Comments<a class="headerlink" href="#comments" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2>
<p>Comments go inline in the body of your code, to explain reasoning:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="n">frobnaglers</span> <span class="o">></span> <span class="n">whozits</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="c1"># borangas are shermed to ensure frobnagler population</span>
<span class="c1"># does not grow out of control</span>
<span class="n">sherm_the_boranga</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>You can use them to mark places you want to revisit later:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">partygoer</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">partygoers</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">balloon</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">balloons</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">cupcake</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">cupcakes</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="c1"># TODO: Reduce time complexity here. It's killing us</span>
<span class="c1"># for large parties.</span>
<span class="n">resolve_party_favor</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">partygoer</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">balloon</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">cupcake</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="comments-about-comments">
<h2>Comments about Comments<a class="headerlink" href="#comments-about-comments" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li><p>Be judicious in your use of comments.</p></li>
<li><p>Use them when you need to.</p></li>
<li><p>Make them useful.</p></li>
<li><p>Do not use them merely to restate what the code is / should be doing. Make the code self explanatory!</p></li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<p>This is not useful:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">sponge</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">sponges</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="c1"># apply soap to each sponge</span>
<span class="n">worker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">apply_soap</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">sponge</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Note: Nothing special about Python here – basic good programing practice. Note that you will need a lot fewer comments if you choose your names well!</p>
</section>
<section id="docstrings">
<h2>Docstrings<a class="headerlink" href="#docstrings" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2>
<p>In Python, “docstrings” are used to provide in-line documentation in a number of places.</p>
<p>The first place we will see is in the definition of functions.</p>
<p>As you know, to define a function you use the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">def</span></code> keyword.</p>
<p>If a “string literal” is the first thing in the function block following the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">def</span></code> line, it is a “docstring”:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">complex_function</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">arg1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">arg2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">kwarg1</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'banana'</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="sd">"""Return a value resulting from a complex calculation."""</span>
<span class="c1"># code block here</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>You can then read this in the interpreter as the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__doc__</span></code> attribute of the
function object. Docstrings can also be read and processed by documentation systems and IDEs like iPython and Sphinx.</p>
<section id="a-function-docstring-should">
<h3>A Function Docstring Should:<a class="headerlink" href="#a-function-docstring-should" title="Link to this heading"></a></h3>
<ul class="simple">
<li><p>Be a complete sentence in the form of a command describing what the function
does.</p>
<ul>
<li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">"""Return</span> <span class="pre">a</span> <span class="pre">list</span> <span class="pre">of</span> <span class="pre">values</span> <span class="pre">based</span> <span class="pre">on</span> <span class="pre">blah</span> <span class="pre">blah"""</span></code> is a good docstring</p></li>
<li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">"""Returns</span> <span class="pre">a</span> <span class="pre">list</span> <span class="pre">of</span> <span class="pre">values</span> <span class="pre">based</span> <span class="pre">on</span> <span class="pre">blah</span> <span class="pre">blah"""</span></code> is <em>not</em> as good..</p></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><p>Have a useful single line.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>If more description is needed, make the first line a complete sentence and
add more lines below for enhancement.</p></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><p>Be enclosed with triple-quotes.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>This allows for easy expansion if required at a later date.</p></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>For any functions that are less than trivial, and particularly if they take multiple parameters, the parameters should be described in the docstring:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">complex_function</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">arg1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">arg2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">kwarg1</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'banana'</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="w"> </span><span class="sd">"""</span>
<span class="sd"> Return a value resulting from a complex calculation.</span>
<span class="sd"> :param arg1: The first very important parameter. And a bit about</span>
<span class="sd"> what it means.</span>
<span class="sd"> :param arg2: The second very important parameter. And now some</span>
<span class="sd"> description of how this is used</span>
<span class="sd"> :param kwarg1='banana': An optional parameter. Some text describing</span>
<span class="sd"> what it means and why you might specify it.</span>
<span class="sd"> """</span>
<span class="c1"># The actual code here</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">:param</span> <span class="pre">arg1:</span></code> notation is “restructured text” – very handy if you want your docstrings to be able to be automatically processed by documentation systems such as <a class="reference external" href="http://sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a></p>
</section>
<section id="the-docstring-pep">
<h3>The docstring PEP<a class="headerlink" href="#the-docstring-pep" title="Link to this heading"></a></h3>
<p>For the full “official” recommendations about docstrings, see <a class="reference external" href="http://legacy.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/">PEP 257: Docstring Conventions</a>.</p>
</section>
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