unison/unison-src/transcripts/docs.output.md

Documenting Unison code

Unison documentation is written in Unison. Documentation is a value of the following type:

.> view builtin.Doc

  unique type builtin.Doc
    = Link Link
    | Source Link
    | Blob Text
    | Join [builtin.Doc]
    | Signature Term
    | Evaluate Term

You can create these Doc values with ordinary code, or you can use the special syntax. A value of type Doc can be created via syntax like:

use .builtin

doc1 = [: This is some documentation.

It can span multiple lines.

Can link to definitions like @List.drop or @List

:]

  I found and typechecked these definitions in scratch.u. If you
  do an `add` or `update`, here's how your codebase would
  change:
  
    ⍟ These new definitions are ok to `add`:
    
      doc1 : Doc

Syntax:

[: starts a documentation block; :] finishes it. Within the block:

• Links to definitions are done with @List. \@ (and \:]) if you want to escape.
• @[signature] List.take expands to the type signature of List.take
• @[source] List.map expands to the full source of List.map
• @[include] someOtherDoc, inserts a value someOtherDoc : Doc here.
• @[evaluate] someDefinition expands to the result of evaluating someDefinition, which must be a pre-existing definition in the codebase (can't be an arbitrary expression).

An example

We are going to document List.take using some verbiage and a few examples. First we have to add the examples to the codebase:

List.take.ex1 = take 0 [1,2,3,4,5]
List.take.ex2 = take 2 [1,2,3,4,5]

  I found and typechecked these definitions in scratch.u. If you
  do an `add` or `update`, here's how your codebase would
  change:
  
    ⍟ These new definitions are ok to `add`:
    
      List.take.ex1 : [Nat]
      List.take.ex2 : [Nat]

.> add

  ⍟ I've added these definitions:
  
    List.take.ex1 : [Nat]
    List.take.ex2 : [Nat]

And now let's write our docs and reference these examples:

use .builtin

docs.List.take = [:
`@List.take n xs` returns the first `n` elements of `xs`. (No need to add line breaks manually. The display command will do wrapping of text for you.  Indent any lines where you don't want it to do this.)

## Examples:

@[source] List.take.ex1
🔽
@List.take.ex1 = @[evaluate] List.take.ex1


@[source] List.take.ex2
🔽
@List.take.ex2 = @[evaluate] List.take.ex2
:]

  I found and typechecked these definitions in scratch.u. If you
  do an `add` or `update`, here's how your codebase would
  change:
  
    ⍟ These new definitions are ok to `add`:
    
      docs.List.take : Doc

Let's add it to the codebase, and link it to the definition:

.> add

  ⍟ I've added these definitions:
  
    docs.List.take : Doc

.> link docs.List.take builtin.List.take

  Updates:
  
    1. builtin.List.take : Nat -> [a] -> [a]
       + 2. docs.List.take : Doc

Now that documentation is linked to the definition. We can view it if we like:

.> links builtin.List.take builtin.Doc

  1. docs.List.take : Doc
  
  Tip: Try using `display 1` to display the first result or
       `view 1` to view its source.

.> display 1

  
  `builtin.List.take n xs` returns the first `n` elements of `xs`.
  (No need to add line breaks manually. The display command will
  do wrapping of text for you.  Indent any lines where you don't
  want it to do this.)
  
  ## Examples:
  
  List.take.ex1 = builtin.List.take 0 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  🔽 ex1 = []
  
  
  List.take.ex2 = builtin.List.take 2 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  🔽 ex2 = [1, 2]
  

Or there's also a convenient function, docs, which shows the Doc values that are linked to a definition. It's implemented in terms of links and display:

.> docs builtin.List.take

  
  `builtin.List.take n xs` returns the first `n` elements of `xs`.
  (No need to add line breaks manually. The display command will
  do wrapping of text for you.  Indent any lines where you don't
  want it to do this.)
  
  ## Examples:
  
  List.take.ex1 = builtin.List.take 0 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  🔽 ex1 = []
  
  
  List.take.ex2 = builtin.List.take 2 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  🔽 ex2 = [1, 2]
  

Note that if we view the source of the documentation, the various references are not expanded.

.> view docs.List.take

  docs.List.take : Doc
  docs.List.take =
    [: 
    `@builtin.List.take n xs` returns the first `n` elements of `xs`.
    (No need to add line breaks manually. The display command will
    do wrapping of text for you.  Indent any lines where you don't
    want it to do this.)
    
    ## Examples:
    
    @[source] ex1
    🔽 @ex1 = @[evaluate] ex1
    
    
    @[source] ex2
    🔽 @ex2 = @[evaluate] ex2
    :]