========
pep0257
========


.. seealso:: http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/


.. contents::
   :depth: 3

Rationale
=========

The aim of this PEP is to standardize the high-level structure of docstrings:
what they should contain, and how to say it (without touching on any markup
syntax within docstrings).

The PEP contains conventions, not laws or syntax.

::

    "A universal convention supplies all of maintainability, clarity, consistency,
    and a foundation for good programming habits too. What it doesn't do is
    insist that you follow it against your will. That's Python !"

    —Tim Peters on comp.lang.python, 2001-06-16

If you violate these conventions, the worst you'll get is some dirty looks.

But some software (such as the Docutils_ docstring processing system pep0256_ )
will be aware of the conventions, so following them will get you the best results.


.. _pep0256: http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0256/
.. _Docutils: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/