Re: No return value in doc string

[Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>]

Dieter Wilhelm <dieter@duenenhof-wilhelm.de> writes:
>> Also if the function makes no effort to return anything useful, it
>> might be better not to document what the return value happens to be.
>
> But has the disadvantage that the uninitiated and insecure (my
> example) may suspect a documentation flaw.

They'll have to learn to deal with that.

It's a fairly general rule in computer programming:  if something is not
mentioned in the documentation (or some more formal interface
description), you cannot make assumptions about it.  [In practice of
course, you _have_ to make _some_ assumptions, but learning which you
can make and which you can't is an important part of learning to program
in a particular environment.]

-Miles
-- 
"Most attacks seem to take place at night, during a rainstorm, uphill,
 where four map sheets join."   -- Anon. British Officer in WW I