On Wed, 27 May 1998 15:22:09 -0600, Bob_Dorazio@usgs.gov (Bob Dorazio)
wrote:
> Chambers writes
>
> "If the user requests documentation for a function and no explicit
> documentation exists, S will now construct documentation of the function
> call and argument defaults from the function itself. If there are initial
> comments in the function definition, these will be used as a description
> of the function. Provided programmers just remember to add a few lines of
> comments, functions can be usefully documented from their first writing."
>
> I think the last sentence speaks volumes. Most programmers, especially
> myself, could do a better job of documenting their code. I have no
> experience with version 4 of S, but I am curious to see whether
> self-documentation, as implemented and practiced, really is an
> enhancement.
I haven't used S 4, but I use a self-documentation system for Pascal
code that I wrote a few years ago, and a development environment for
Object Pascal code that has a more convenient but less extensive one
built in. I can say from experience that this is a tremendous
enhancement. I write a lot of code, and having documentation that is
guaranteed to be up to date with complete coverage (if not complete
depth) makes the job much easier.
This is the real negative for me in writing S code: the development
environment is so unhelpful.
Duncan Murdoch
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