An Introduction to Python Programming for Scientists and Engineers

In Section 4.2.4 we introduced code comments and Jupyter markdown, and in Section 6.2.6, we introduced docstrings. Although these constructs and practices are vital for the programs we write, there is more to documentation. Documentation is often unsung, but it plays a vital role in making our programs understandable and usable by ourselves and others. Python has a number of tools to streamline the process of creating documentation. In this chapter, we discuss principles of documenting, a more detailed general convention for docstrings than was described in Section 6.2.6, and the Sphinx documentation-generation program.