Robert Dodier writes:
>
>> In fact, if I knew how, I'd want the documentation
>> for every maxima function or variable to be in the function/variable
>> itself, instead of in some separate file.
>
> Well, this is problematic. (1) Maxima functions are often not associated
> with a function of the same name, or any single function for that matter.
> (2) Even if Maxima docs were implemented with doc strings,
> it doesn't obviate the need for some kind of formatting markup.
> (3) When docs are embedded in the source code, touching the
> docs means touching the source files. Then when you try to trace
> the history of some file you have to disentangle the two kinds of
> changes. (4) Where do we put translations into Spanish, etc?
> (5) What's important to users is generally different from what's
> important to programmers. Trying to smash both into the source
> code seems messy; source code should document stuff that's
> important to programmers.
>
IMHO Internal documentation for Maxima functions is purely
developer's docs and should not be mixed with user level
documentation.
--
Vadim V. Zhytnikov
<vvzhy at mail.ru>
<vvzhy at netorn.ru>