Group Abstract Group Abstract

Message Boards Message Boards

0
|
2.6K Views
|
4 Replies
|
3 Total Likes
View groups...
Share
Share this post:

Write good help for custom commands in self developed package

Posted 3 years ago

I am currently using Wolfram language to develop a package in the field of crystallography, which includes many custom commands, and I'm confused about how to write good help text for these commands. For example, I wrote the following command parameter help text for one of the commands:

AffCrystGroupOnLeft::usage = " AffineCrystGroupOnLeft[ gen1, gen2, ..., method ] AffineCrystGroupOnLeft[ { gen1, gen2, ... }, method ]

This command returns a matrix group generated by <gens> or <genlist>, which must be affine matrices acting on the left. The group elements are given in the modulo 1 format to keep all the products within the unit cell.

The <method> parameter has the following modulo method options: 0 is the normal method of Mod[{x,y,z}, 1] for the translation vector {x,y,z}. 1 keep all original components of the translation vector {x, y, Z} equal to 1 in their original form, i.e., without applying modulo on them.

The default value of this parameter is 0.";

But I still feel that my description and writing format is rather confusing and poor. Although I have no problem understanding it myself. But how can the above description and format be improved to make it easier for potential users to grasp and clearly understand the meaning?

Regards,
Zhao

POSTED BY: Hongyi Zhao
4 Replies
Posted 3 years ago

Formatting: enter image description here

Attachments:
POSTED BY: Hans Milton
Posted 3 years ago

You can also write the text with "normal" linebreaks, as in the attached file.

Attachments:
POSTED BY: Hans Milton
Posted 3 years ago

Thank you again. I have taken your suggestion and re-formatted the relevant help text.

POSTED BY: Hongyi Zhao
Posted 3 years ago

Hi Hans,

This method needs to write very long single line text and need to be very careful about the use of new line symbol \n, so it is not easy to write, and error-prone.

POSTED BY: Hongyi Zhao
Reply to this discussion
Community posts can be styled and formatted using the Markdown syntax.
Reply Preview
Attachments
Remove
or Discard