From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2014 20:08:55 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH 5/6] Document a bunch of functions defined in sha1_file.c
Message-ID: <20140224200855.GI7855@google.com>
In-Reply-To: <530BA530.3070603@alum.mit.edu>

Hi,

Michael Haggerty wrote:

> No, this hasn't changed.  I've been documenting public functions in the
> header files above the declaration, and private ones where they are
> defined.  So I moved the documentation for this function to cache.h:
>
> +/*
> + * Return the name of the file in the local object database that would
> + * be used to store a loose object with the specified sha1.  The
> + * return value is a pointer to a statically allocated buffer that is
> + * overwritten each time the function is called.
> + */
>  extern const char *sha1_file_name(const unsigned char *sha1);
>
> I also rewrite the comment, as you can see.  The "NOTE!" seemed a bit
> overboard to me, given that there are a lot of functions in our codebase
> that behave similarly.  So I toned the warning down, and tightened up
> the comment overall.
>
> Let me know if you think I've made it less helpful.

In the present state of the codebase, where many important functions
have no documentation or out-of-date documentation, the first place I
look to understand a function is its point of definition.  So I do
think that moving docs to the header file makes it less helpful.  I'd
prefer a mass move in the opposite direction (from header files to the
point of definition).

On the other hand I don't feel strongly about it.

Hope that helps,
Jonathan