Keywords: cuddIntro

Next: The C++ Interface Up: Programmer's Manual Previous: Gathering and Interpreting Statistics

## Guidelines for Documentation

The documentation of the CUDD functions is extracted automatically from the sources by Stephen Edwards's extdoc. (The Ext system is available via anonymous FTP from `ic.eecs.berkeley.edu`.) The following guidelines are followed in CUDD to insure consistent and effective use of automatic extraction. It is recommended that extensions to CUDD follow the same documentation guidelines.

- The documentation of an exported procedure should be sufficient to allow one to use it without reading the code. It is not necessary to explain how the procedure works; only what it does.
- The SeeAlso fields should be space-separated lists of function names. The SeeAlso field of an exported procedure should only reference other exported procedures. The SeeAlso field of an internal procedure may reference other internal procedures as well as exported procedures, but no static procedures.
- The return values are detailed in the Description field, not in the Synopsis field.
- The parameters are documented alongside their declarations. Further comments may appear in the Description field.
- If the Description field is non-empty--which is the normal case for an exported procedure--then the synopsis is repeated--possibly slightly changed--at the beginning of the Description field. This is so because extdoc will not put the synopsis in the same HTML file as the description.
- The Synopsis field should be about one line long.