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abstract function signatures, argument names and documentation
f#classesopinion

Hi,

In my opinion function argument names are valuable and sometimes essential for understanding library interfaces. I do not understand why the OCaml designers chose to omit the argument names from signatures and (automatically generated) documentation and I don't think this tradition should be continued in F#.
The auto-generated library docs for F# would certainly profit from including argument names, especially regarding functions with several arguments of the same type. It would also be very helpful if one could give argument names for abstract members of classes or interface types.

Best regards,
Stephan

.

Hi Stephan,

I agree agument names would be helpful in the documentation. You can already specify argument names as part of a type signature, just they are optional not manditory:

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type ITestArgs = interface
    abstract Plot: x:int -> y:int -> unit
end

Cheers,
Rob

By on 10/27/2007 9:49 AM ()

Hi Robert,

Apparently this syntax also works for the typical tuple arguments in member functions

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type ITestArgs = interface
    abstract Plot: x:int * y:int -> unit
end

though it doesn't seem to be documented in the language spec (or I just can't find it). But it is mentioned in the release notes, together with such treasures as optional and named arguments.

Next time I'll just try the obvious syntax... Thanks for the hint.

Stephan

By on 10/27/2007 10:49 AM ()

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