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Add note about docstrings for aliases (#18157)
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As mentioned in #18041 (comment)
docstrings attached to aliases of functions should be avoided where possible.
(cherry picked from commit 3ed55a4)
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MichaelHatherly authored and tkelman committed Aug 21, 2016
1 parent 38bec84 commit 285ef3e
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26 changes: 26 additions & 0 deletions doc/manual/documentation.rst
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Expand Up @@ -441,6 +441,32 @@ Global Variables
Adds docstring ``"..."`` to the ``Binding``\ s ``a``, ``b``, and ``c``.

.. note::

When a ``const`` definition is only used to define an alias of another definition, such
as is the case with the function ``div`` and its alias ``÷`` in ``Base``, do not
document the alias and instead document the actual function.

If the alias is documented and not the real definition then the docsystem (``?`` mode)
will not return the docstring attached to the alias when the real definition is
searched for.

For example you should write

.. code-block:: julia
"..."
f(x) = x + 1
const alias = f
rather than

.. code-block:: julia
f(x) = x + 1
"..."
const alias = f
.. code-block:: julia
"..."
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