On 06/26/2013 08:56 PM, Guido van Rossum wrote:
PEP 257 says this on the formatting of multi-line docstrings:

"""
Multi-line docstrings consist of a summary line just like a one-line
docstring, followed by a blank line, followed by a more elaborate
description. The summary line may be used by automatic indexing tools;
it is important that it fits on one line and is separated from the
rest of the docstring by a blank line. [...]
"""

I still like this rule, but it is violated frequently, in the stdlib
and elsewhere. I'd like to urge stdlib contributors and core devs to
heed it -- or explain why you can't.

Argument Clinic could conceivably enforce this.  It could mandate that the first paragraph of the function docstring contain exactly one sentence (must end in a period, all embedded periods cannot be followed by
whitespace).  This would make some things nicer; I could automatically insert the per-parameter docstrings in after the summary.

Should it?


/arry