RE: [PATCH] kernel-doc: rename the kernel-doc directive 'functions' to 'specific'

Tim.Bird
2019-10-14T20:49:38Z

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jani Nikula on October 13, 2019 11:00 PM
> On Sun, 13 Oct 2019, Changbin Du <changbin.du@gmail.com> wrote:
> > The 'functions' directive is not only for functions, but also works for
> > structs/unions. So the name is misleading. This patch renames it to
> > 'specific', so now we have export/internal/specific directives to limit
> > the functions/types to be included in documentation. Meanwhile we
> improved
> > the warning message.
>
> Agreed on "functions" being less than perfect. It directly exposes the
> idiosyncrasies of scripts/kernel-doc. I'm not sure "specific" is any
> better, though.

I strongly agree with this. 'specific' IMHO, has no semantic value and
I'd rather just leave the only-sometimes-wrong 'functions' than convert
to something that obscures the meaning always.

>
> Perhaps "symbols" would be more self-explanatory. Or, actually make
> "functions" only work on functions, and add a separate keyword for other
> stuff. *shrug*
My preference would be to use 'symbols'. I tried to come up with something
but 'symbols' is better than anything I came up with.

>
> Seems like the patch is way too big. I'd probably add "symbols" (or
> whatever) as a synonym for "functions" for starters, and convert
> documents piecemeal, and finally drop the old one.
>
> The scripts/kernel-doc change should be a patch of its own.
Agreed on these two points as well.

Just adding my 2 cents.
-- Tim