fenics team mailing list archive

[Anders Logg <logg@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 11:38:41AM +0200, Kristian Ølgaard wrote:
> The FEniCS documentation is almost complete. Below is a short list of
> what remains to be done and a sketch of how we will handle the
> programmer's reference part the design of which has been debated
> intensely over the past weeks.
>
> * Tutorial
>   - Hans Petter is working on translating his TEX source to reST for
> the Python version.
>   - Figure out if there are some common parts of the text which can be
> shared with the C++ version.
>   - Fill in blanks for C++ version.
>   - This work can be completed independently of the other parts since
> we can already use references like
>     :py:class:`Foo` :cpp:class:`Foo`.
>
> * Demos
>   - Framework is in place.
>   - Add documentation for all demos in the dolfin/demo/undocumented directory.
>   - Again, this work can be completed independently of the other parts
> since we can already use references like
>     :py:class:`Foo` :cpp:class:`Foo`.
>
> * Style guides
>   - Once the programmer's reference is complete we need to update this
> section in the style guides accordingly.
>
> * Programmer's reference
>   - Add module to extract docstrings from *.h files to DOLFIN.
>     Anders' script is already working but we need to define the
> intermediate representation (IR).
>   - Make write_cpp_documentation() work with the intermediate representation.
>     The C++ version of programmer's reference is more or less complete.
>   - From the IR generate the docstrings.i file in DOLFIN.
>     We need to handle the example code (C++ --> Python syntax) and the
> native arguments like double* --> numpy.array.
>   - Add complete docstrings to the extended methods in *_post.i files
> and the Python layer in dolfin/site-packages/dolfin,
>     the idea being that documentation should be located where the code is.
>   - In fenics-doc we will import the dolfin module and use it to
> generate the reST files and autodoc from Sphinx to handle the
> docstrings.
>     To get a meaningful module structure we have to be more careful
> when including classes/functions in the __init__.py file in dolfin.
>     Classes from dolfin.cpp which are not imported in other modules
> (like dolfin.mesh, dolfin.la etc.) will not be included in the
>     documentation.
>
> The above should increase the chances of the source code in DOLFIN and
> the documentation being in sync as well as reduce the work involved
> writing documentation for both interfaces. We will also have the same
> documentation available in >>> help(dolfin) as we have in the online
> documentation.
>
> Finally, the appendices for FFC, UFC and UFL needs to be written. I
> think we can handle FFC and UFL by improving the docstrings in the
> modules (this will also help developers while writing the code) and
> use autodoc from Sphinx, maybe with some autogenerated reST files.
> The documentation for UFC might have to be written manually, but since
> the idea is that the interface should not change too rapidly I think
> this is an OK solution.
>
> There's your summary Anders, now let's hear your completely different
> approach to documenting the FEniCS project :)

I actually think this looks good! :-) Just a couple of questions/comments:

1. I don't understand how the docstrings in *_post.i files is supposed
to work. How does one write them and how are they extracted?

2. For FFC, UFC and UFL, we have pretty good manuals already, so would
it be possible to just use that as a starting point, convert to reST
with some extra manual editing? Or should it all be part of the code?

3. Perhaps it would be a good idea to divide the documentation effort
between all developers, like having a system where everyone signs up
to document a specific demo.

4. I made a bunch of notes when we worked with the docs a couple of
weeks back. I have them on a piece of paper at the office. Some of
these you have already fixed but I'll check what else I thought of.

--
Anders