API comment conventions

Author: steveklabnik

text/0000-api-comment-conventions.md

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+- Start Date: 2014-12-08
+- RFC PR: (leave this empty)
+- Rust Issue: (leave this empty)
+
+# Summary
+
+This is a conventions RFC, providing guidance on providing API documentation
+for Rust projects, including the Rust language itself.
+
+# Motivation
+
+Documentation is an extremely important part of any project. It's important
+that we have consistency in our documentation.
+
+For the most part, the RFC proposes guidelines that are already followed today,
+but it tries to motivate and clarify them.
+
+# Detailed design
+
+There are a number of indivudal guidelines:
+
+## Use line comments
+
+Avoid block comments. Use line comments instead:
+
+```rust
+// Wait for the main task to return, and set the process error code
+// appropriately.
+```
+
+Instead of:
+
+```rust
+/*
+ * Wait for the main task to return, and set the process error code
+ * appropriately.
+ */
+```
+
+Only use inner doc comments //! to write crate and module-level documentation, nothing else.
+
+## Formatting
+
+The first line in any doc comment should be a single-line short sentence
+providing a summary of the code. This line is used as a summary description
+throughout Rustdoc's output, so it's a good idea to keep it short.
+
+All doc comments, including the summary line, should begin with a capital
+letter and end with a period, question mark, or exclamation point. Prefer full
+sentences to fragments.
+
+The summary line should be written in third person singular present indicative
+form. Basically, this means write "Returns" instead of "Return".
+
+## Using Markdown
+
+Within doc comments, use Markdown to format your documentation.
+
+Use top level headings # to indicate sections within your comment. Common headings:
+
+* Examples
+* Panics
+* Failure
+
+Even if you only include one example, use the plural form: "Examples" rather
+than "Example". Future tooling is easier this way.
+
+Use graves (`) to denote a code fragment within a sentence.
+
+Use triple graves (```) to write longer examples, like this:
+
+    This code does something cool.
+
+    ```rust
+    let x = foo();
+    x.bar();
+    ```
+
+When appropriate, make use of Rustdoc's modifiers. Annotate triple grave blocks with
+the appropriate formatting directive. While they default to Rust in Rustdoc, prefer
+being explicit, so that it highlights syntax in places that do not, like GitHub.
+
+    ```rust
+    println!("Hello, world!");
+    ```
+
+    ```ruby
+    puts "Hello"
+    ```
+
+Rustdoc is able to test all Rust examples embedded inside of documentation, so
+it's important to mark what is not Rust so your tests don't fail.
+
+References and citation should be linked inline. Prefer
+
+```
+[some paper](http://www.foo.edu/something.pdf)
+```
+
+to
+
+```
+some paper[1]
+
+1: http://www.foo.edu/something.pdf
+```
+
+## English
+
+All documentation is standardized on American English, with regards to
+spelling, grammar, and punctuation conventions. Language changes over time,
+so this doesn't mean that there is always a correct answer to every grammar
+question, but there is often some kind of formal consensus.
+
+# Drawbacks
+
+None.
+
+# Alternatives
+
+Not having documentation guidelines.
+
+# Unresolved questions
+
+None.