CoCoA » CoCoA-5

I noticed in the new CoCoA-5 manual entry for ApproxPointsNBM there are some incomplete phrases about what various verbosity levels do.

I think I would prefer a less detailed description: perhaps just the range of useful verbosity levels for that fn?

Verbose messages are useful aids for those trying to debug or simply understand the internal workings; they are not really an essential part of the function. If we give too many details in the manual then that make any future changes difficult (or else we have to remember to update the manual, and produce a notice saying that things have changed).

I like the idea of <key>verbose</key>. KISS!

I refined my idea: now a function implementing verbosity should have these lines in its manual entry

<types>
  <type>verbosity</type>
</types>

also added

  <type>interrupt</type>

It seems a bit odd to have verbosity and interrupt under types.

Better types than keywords?

John Abbott wrote:

It seems a bit odd to have verbosity and interrupt under types.

<type> is used for making a list of functions of a certain type (i.e. having input type BLAH, or being a command, loop, ...).
These lists are generated also in the html and pdf version of the manual, in the descriptive part of the manual.

Better types than keywords?

<key> is for only for searching in the manual withing cocoa.