[vtkusers] "State of the documentation address"

[David Doria]

On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 3:20 PM, David Doria <daviddoria+vtk at gmail.com> wrote:
> I had a few minutes so I thought it would be productive to start to make a
> list of problems in the documentation. I was looking at the current doxygen
> pages (e.g.
> http://www.vtk.org/doc/nightly/html/classvtkLandmarkTransform.html) I will
> maintain the list here:
> http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK#Documentation_Improvement
>
> After not very long, I realized that this was not such a productive exercise
> (see below). We really need to just go through class by class and make sure
> every function has at least a brief/correct description for now (and that
> the doxygen syntax is correct). We can go back and fill in the real
> meat/good descriptions slowly.
>
> Here is what I came up with after only going through 3 classes...
>
> ===vtkMath===
> * Pi, DoubleTwoPi, DoublePi all just say "useful constants. Maybe they could
> say something like "2 * 3.14159..." or 2 *\pi or something like that?
> * DegreesFromRadians says "Useful constants". This is incorrect. It should
> explain the conversion along with specify if there are/aren't bound on the
> input.
> * DoubleDegreesToRadians says "useful constants". This is incorrect.
> * DoubleRadiansToDegrees says "useful constants". This is incorrect.
> * Round(double) says "useful constants". This is incorrect.
> * Floor() has no documentation at all.
> * Outer(double, double, double) says "useful constants". This is incorrect.
> * Norm(double, int) says "useful constants". This is incorrect.
> * Perpendiculars(double, double, double, double) says "useful constants".
> This is incorrect. x,y,z, and theta must be explained.
> * Outer2D says "useful constants". This is incorrect.
> * Determinant2x2(double, double) says "Useful constants". This is incorrect.
> * LUFactor3x3(double, int) says "useful constants". This is incorrect.
> * LUSolve3x3(double, int,double) says "useful constants". This is incorrect.
> * LinearSolve3x3(double,double,double) says "useful constants". This is
> incorrect.
> The list goes on....
>
> ===vtkKdTree===
> * TimingOff() says "turn ON timing"
> * SetTiming(int) says "turn on timing". It should say "turn on timing and
> set the interval (of what?) to the input X (the input variable is not named
> - also a problem).
> * GetTiming says "turn on timing". This is incorrect.
> * GetMinCells() says "turn on timing". This is incorrect.
> * SetNumberOfRegionsOrLess has no documentation.
> * SetNumberOfRegionsOrMore has no documentation.
> * SetFudgeFactor has no documentation.
> * RemoveDataSet says "Turn on timing". This is incorrect.
> * PrintVerboseTree says "Turn on timing"
> * All CreateCellLists functions have no documentation.
> * GetIncludeRegionBoundaryCells/On/Off say "turn on timing". This is
> incorrect.
> * GetCellLists functions say "turn on timing". This is incorrect.
> * GetRegionContainingCell says "turn on timing". This is incorrect.
> * BuildLocatorFromPoints(vtkPoints) says "turn on timing". This is
> incorrect.
> The list goes on...
>
> ===vtkLandmarkTransform===
> * SetTargetLandmarks/SetSourceLandmarks - both of these have the same
> description. One should talk about the target only and the other should talk
> about the source only.
> * GetSource/TargetLandmarks - same description as the Set* methods. This is
> incorrect.
> * SetModeToRigidBody has the same desciption as SetSourceLandmarks. This is
> incorrect.
> * SetModeTo* has the same description as SetSourceLandmarks. This is
> incorrect.
> * GetMTime - says "Get the MTime". What is MTime? Modification time? Maybe
> "Get the time at which the object was last modified."
>
> How can we start to divide/assign the work? This is what I would consider a
> lucky and unusual case - a HUGE problem with a VERY easy solution.
>
> Thanks,
>
> David
>

I was expecting a lot of "wow that is shocking!!" type responses - I
guess no one cares??

Thanks,

David