The following typeface conventions are used to make the documentation clearer:
• Header
• Subheader
• code
- this style is used for all code examples, except see below.
• meta-variable
- this is used for meta-variables in the code, for example int would mean that an integer or integer valued function or parameter should be used in that place.
• function template (as for code, but black rather than blue)
- this is used for syntactic definition of a function - what types required, what types returned.
• source code for function
- this is used where a piece of source code is given without supporting text, for example the source code of a library.
• warning
- this is used for any text that needs to stand out.
In the function documentation, usually there is
- a subheader (these may be grouped),
- a description of the function,
- the syntactic template,
- the source code if any (sometimes 'direct coded' is used)
- any examples.
For example:
length
length returns the number of elements in a list passed to it.