wyz.code.rdoc Tips and Tricks

In wyz.code.rdoc: Wizardry Code Offensive Programming R Documentation

knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = ""
)
source('common-style.R')

library("data.table")
library("wyz.code.offensiveProgramming")
library("wyz.code.rdoc", warn.conflicts = FALSE)

This use-case vignette is dedicated to some common manual page use case generation using package r rdoc.

It may make sense for newcommers to read the tutorial vignette prior to read this vignette.

Tips and tricks about R code {.tabset .tabset-fade .tabset-pills}

Parameter naming

Unless you specify a length of r citefigure('1') or r citefigure('1l'), pluralize the parameter name. For example, avoid r citeop('countryFlag_b_3'), prefer r citeop('countryFlags_b_3'). Reason is quite simple, with the first one, you will have to correct produce documentation text as it is less likely to be correct in singular form than pluralized. When using no length specification, pluralizing that parameter name is the best practice. Understanding following examples, worth the time.

wyz.code.rdoc:::getTypeLabel(FunctionParameterName('countryFlag_b_3')) # wrong

wyz.code.rdoc:::getTypeLabel(FunctionParameterName('countryFlags_b_3')) # right

wyz.code.rdoc:::getTypeLabel(FunctionParameterName('countryFlags_b_1')) # wrong

wyz.code.rdoc:::getTypeLabel(FunctionParameterName('countryFlag_b_1')) # right

wyz.code.rdoc:::getTypeLabel(FunctionParameterName('countryFlag_b')) # wrong

wyz.code.rdoc:::getTypeLabel(FunctionParameterName('countryFlags_b')) # right

Tips and tricks about sections {.tabset .tabset-fade .tabset-pills}

add a section

Some sections have to be unique r cmt('title, description, examples, ...') some others not r cmt('keyword, concept, alias, ...'). You must respect the implicit contract of the standard r R documentation. See writing r R extensions for more information.

To add a section, just set its content to the one you desired. Content may contain format directives or not. See below, paragraph 'about-format'.

My only advice is to keep content as simple and sharp as possible. Using non ambiguous terms and clear sentences helps a lot.

For example, to add a r citefun('details') section and three r citefun('concept') sections, you could do something similar to

pc <- ProcessingContext(
  extraneous_l = list(
    details = 'It is worth to know bla bla bla',
    concept = paste0('concept-', 1:3)
  )
)

complete a section

Activate post processing for sections you want to complete. For example, to complete the r citefun('title') section, you could do

pc <- ProcessingContext(
  postProcessing_l = list( 
    title =  function(content_s) { 
      paste(content_s, sentensize('some complimentary content'))
    }
  )
)

remove a section

Just set its content to r citecode('NULL').

pc <- ProcessingContext(
  postProcessing_l = list(
    details = function(content_s) NULL
  )
)

Tips and tricks about content

content escaping

Content escaping is sometimes fully necessary, sometimes partially necessary and sometimes unneeded. Quite difficult to have a systematic approach, as content varies at lot according to section intent, section nature r cmt('code, text, equation, ...') and also according to surrounding context.

To ease handling of content escape, r rdoc offers several functions: a high-level function r citefun("generateMarkup") and a low-level function r citefun("escapeContent").

By default content used is only partially escaped. Characters, r citechar("'@'") and r citechar("'%'") are systematically escaped, but not characters r citechar("'{'") and r citechar("'}'"). To escape those last, you must set argument r citearg("escapeBraces_b_1") to r citecode("TRUE") while using one or the other of those functions.

content <- 'function(x) { x + 1 }'

# To be use in a code section content
generateMarkup(content)

# To be used in a text section content
paste('Some R code:', generateMarkup(content, escapeBraces_b_1 = TRUE))

Content generation for r R documentation section {.tabset .tabset-fade .tabset-pills}

As a end-user you should rely on use cases. As a programmer, you may need to create your own generation scheme to fulfil some special requirements. Following function could be useful to do so.

function name | intent :--------------------|:--------------------------------------------------------- r citefun('generateSection') | generate a r R documentation section r citefun('generateParagraph') | generate a paragraph collating all your inputs with a single new line by default. r citefun('generateParagraphCR') | generate a paragraph collating all your inputs with '\cr' r citefun('generateParagraph2NL') | generate a paragraph collating all your inputs with two new lines.

Content generation for r citefun('examples') section {.tabset .tabset-fade .tabset-pills}

Examples are a really important part of the documentation. It is also a quite tricky part when handcrafting documentation. This is due an inherent complexity related to contextual processing that has to take into consideration, testing time, necessary testing resources, test execution path, and so on.

In order to increase productivity and simplify the r citefun('examples') section, r rdoc provides a dedicated function that turns pure r R code into content.

Here is the pattern to follow.

1. create a variable that holds a list of functions taking no arguments. The body of each function must be legal r R code, embodying the example
2. use function r citefun('convertExamples') to convert examples. You have the opportunity to pass along some keywords in order to manage test that should not be ran, should not be tested, should not be shown. You also have the opportunity to capture the example output and to introduce it automatically into the content.

Let's see a sample session to do so

code

# The function to test
divide <- function(x_n, y_n) x_n / y_n

# The examples to consider
examples <- list(
  function() { divide(1:3, 1:3 + 13L) },
  function() { divide(0L, c(Inf, -Inf)) },
  function() { divide(c(Inf, -Inf), 0L) },
  function() { divide(0L, 0L) }
)

# your documentation complementary parts to consider 
# and manual page generation context setup
ic <- InputContext(NULL, 'divide')
pc <- ProcessingContext(
  extraneous_l = list(
    examples = convertExamples(examples, captureOutput_b_1n = TRUE)
  )
)
gc <- GenerationContext(tempdir(), overwrite = TRUE)

# The generation of the manual page
rv <- produceManualPage(ic, pc, gc)

content generated

readLines(rv$context$filename)

generated content as picture

Tips and tricks about format {.tabset .tabset-fade .tabset-pills}

enumeration format

Function r citefun('generateEnumeration') eases enumeration management.

generateEnumeration(paste('case', 1:4))

list format

Function r citefun('generateEnumeration') also eases item list management.

generateEnumeration(paste('case', 1:4), TRUE)

table format

To format a table, use function r citefun('generateTable').

dt <- data.table::data.table(x = paste0('XY_', 1:3), y = letters[1:3])

# as-is 
generateTable(dt)

# with row numbering
generateTable(dt, numberRows_b_1 = TRUE)

special formats

Specification of r R documentation is quite complex. There are many variants possible and many ways to achieve a result. Following functions try to provide one convenient solution for some common needs.

function name | intent :--------------------|:--------------------------------------------------------- r citefun('generateOptionLink') | When you need to generate a cross package documentation link use this function. If you need an intra package documentation link use function r citefun('beautify()$link'). You could also use r citefun('producePackageLink') to generate a cross package documentation link, but you won't be able to customize the labels. r citefun('generateOptionSexpr') | When you need to generate a r citecode('Sexpr'), use r citefun('generateMarkup') when you don't need options, otherwise use funciton r citefun('generateOptionSexpr'). r citefun('generateEnc') | generate a locale text encoding and ASCII equivalence. Not to be confused with r citefun('generateEncoding') that set encoding for the full manual page. r citefun('generateReference') | generate the text for a documentary or web reference.

Refer to dedicated manual pages for more information.

Tips and tricks about presentation {.tabset .tabset-fade .tabset-pills}

Many typographic enhancements are available. They are all grouped behind a facade name r citefun('beautify').

b <- beautify()
names(b)

b$bold('lorem ipsum')

b$file('/tmp/result.txt')

b$acronym('CRAN')

co <- '{ x %% y }'
b$code(co) # very probably wrong 

e <- beautify(TRUE)
e$code(co) # much more probably right

and the very convenient

# link to another package
b$code(producePackageLink('ggplot2', 'aes_string'))

# link to same package
b$codeLink('generateTable')

# link to same package with enhanced presentation
b$enhanceCodeLink('generateTable')

wyz.code.rdoc documentation built on Oct. 6, 2021, 9:07 a.m.