Docstrings and API Documentation

Interactive Explorer 1

Explore key concepts interactively

Parameters

Quick Check

Key concept question for section 1?

Option A

Option B

Option C

Common Mistake: Common Mistake in Section 1

Mistake:

Overlooking a critical implementation detail.

Correction:

Always verify results against known benchmarks and theoretical predictions.

Key Term 1

Core concept from section 1 of chapter 47.

Definition:

Docstring Standards

NumPy-style docstrings for scientific code:

def estimate_channel(y, A, snr_db):
    """Estimate channel using MMSE.

    Parameters
    ----------
    y : np.ndarray, shape (M,)
        Received signal.
    A : np.ndarray, shape (M, N)
        Sensing matrix.
    snr_db : float
        Signal-to-noise ratio in dB.

    Returns
    -------
    x_hat : np.ndarray, shape (N,)
        Estimated channel.
    """

Definition:

Sphinx Documentation

Sphinx generates HTML documentation from docstrings:

sphinx-quickstart docs/
sphinx-apidoc -o docs/api/ src/
sphinx-build docs/ docs/_build/html/

Definition:

README Structure

A good README contains:

  1. Project title and description
  2. Installation instructions
  3. Quick start example
  4. Configuration options
  5. Citation information

Definition:

Research Log

A research log records daily decisions, results, and observations. Use structured entries with date, hypothesis, experiment, result, and next steps.