[Python-Dev] docstring before function declaration

[Anthony Baxter]

On Monday 21 March 2005 20:08, Nicholas Jacobson wrote:
> > How do you distinguish between a docstring at the
> > top of a module
> > that's immediately followed by a  function? Is it
> > the module docstring
> > or the function docstring?
>
> It's both.  The docstring would be assigned to both
> the module and the function.  This is a *good* thing
> when there is a module with only one function in it.
> i.e. there should only be one docstring for both, and
> this saves repetition of that docstring.
>
> If a programmer wanted a docstring for the function
> but not the module, a blank first line would do the
> trick.  A docstring for the module but not the
> function?  Put a blank line between the module's
> docstring and the function.

Yuk. This is magic taken to a ridiculous level. Note that
"blank lines" currently have no meaning in Python, and adding
a meaning to them is not my idea of a good thing.

-- 
Anthony Baxter     <anthony at interlink.com.au>
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.