Contributing examples to the documentation

Please follow these guidelines when adding sample code to the documentation.

Writing Examples

Please use code blocks to highlight example code; any indented blocks are considered to be code, but you can specify the =for code directive, or a combination of =begin code and =end code to better control which blocks are considered. The rakudoc directives also allow you to set attributes for a block of code.

When using a =for code directive or a =begin code/=end code combination, the code block should not be indented. If it is, it will impact the website rendering.

Testing Examples

t/19-examples-compilation.rakutest will test the code from all the examples. This file is run as part of continuous integration.

To test specific files (recommended), pass them as options on the command line to the test file, or set the environment variable TEST_FILES to a space separated list. See TESTING.md for more details.

Note that method signatures are also compiled. They have an implied block added to insure valid compilation.

Care is taken to wrap the sample code in enough boilerplate so that no runtime code is executed, and that a class is available if needed.

Note: because we are considering each POD code block independently, there is no guarantee that a partial snippet will itself be compilable. For this reason, it's fine to use preamble (see below) to give each block enough information to compile.

For pedagogical reasons, it's OK to break what would otherwise be a large block of code into smaller chunks and discuss each one separately - we still want to do our best to compile these individual chunks. However, avoid this practice across methods on a Type/ page, which can be split up to show only a single method. Even on a Language/ page, avoid continuing an example for more than a page or so.

Skipping or finessing tests

While our goal is to test every example of Raku in the repository, some blocks are not easy to test. Here are some ways you can skip the test or finesse it.

Other languages

We're just testing Raku here: to mark as another language, use :lang, and this will avoid testing:

=begin code :lang<tcl>
puts "this is not Perl"
=end code

For plain text use :lang<text>

Allow .WHAT

One of the checks is to dissuade using .WHAT in tests; However, in rare cases that is the explicit point of the test, so you can allow it with ok-test:

=begin code :ok-test<WHAT>
say 42.WHAT;
=end

Allow dd

dd is a rakudo specific routine that isn't part of the specification; examples shouldn't use it unless they are explicitly trying to show how it works. You can allow it with ok-test:

=begin code :ok-test<dd>
dd 42;
=end

Allow .perl

One of the checks is to discourage using .perl in tests: the raku method should be used instead. If needed you can allow the use of the perl method with ok-test:

=begin code :ok-test<perl>
say {:42a}.perl;
=end

Methods

If a code snippet looks like a method declaration, it's automatically wrapped in additional code so you don't have to specify a body in the docs. Multi-line method signatures are much harder to detect, so if you have a method body that spans lines, use the :method tag:

=begin code :method
method arg (
    Bool $one,
    Bool $two
)
=end code

This helps keep the method detection logic in the test code simple.

Conversely, sometimes the method detection is overeager; you can disable it entirely with :method<False>

Preambles

When writing examples, it's often helpful to refer to things that aren't defined in that snippet; you don't want to have to have a full working example in the code.

=begin code :preamble<no strict;>
$x = pi;
=end code

=begin code :preamble<my $x; sub frob {...};>
$x = frob();
=end code

Note that when running the code, it's compiled inside an anonymous class. The preamble is the first code in this class, so if you're testing the definition of a complex method signature that requires attributes, you can declare them using this construct.

Complicated Examples

Some examples are too complicated to be run using our EVAL trick. Tag these with :solo, and they will be run as a separate standalone script. This is slower, so only use it on those examples that require it. Anything using unit or export is a good candidate. Note that using this tag means the code is not wrapped as it is for the EVAL path.

Failures

Some examples fail with compile time exceptions and would interrupt the test for a file. Use the pod-config option skip-test to skip them. When possible, specify a reason why you have to use this; it should be considered a last resort, and many examples might be amenable to using one of the previous annotations.

=begin code :skip-test<compile time error>
if 1 "missing a block";
=end code

Code Indentation / Formatting

Documentation can be formatted as code using multiple source styles.

Indented text

4-space indented text is formatted as a code block. The indent is not part of the displayed code. It's not possible to add any rakudoc directives on this style.

=for code

The following block of text is treated as code. The indentation level is from the beginning of the line, regardless of how the =for is indented.

=begin code / =end code

The enclosed text is treated as code. The indentation level is relative to the indentation of the rakudoc directives.

Environment Variables

• set RAKU_DOC_TEST_VERBOSE to a true value to display verbose messages during test suite run.

• RAKU_DOC_TEST_FUDGE fudges skip-test code examples as TODO in t/19-examples-compilation.rakutest test.