JuliaLang/julia

Improve apropos display

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#12,989 opened on Sep 6, 2015

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Description

Currently, apropos' output is quite simple — it's just the objects whose docstrings match the search text:

julia> apropos("pearson")
cov
cor

It might be nice to make this display a bit richer. We could additionally print out the first non-code documentation line to the edge of the screen, e.g.,

julia> apropos("pearson")
cov      - Compute the Pearson covariance between the vector(s) in…
cor      - Compute the Pearson correlation between the vector(s) i…

It also might be nice to make it return a Julia type that simply contains an array of objects and their documentation, so IJulia and other non-REPL programs can format it a little nicer or linkify the text for full documentation. This does have the downside of making the display non-incremental, making it feel a little slower, but it may be worth it.

The implementation is also quite simple and should be fairly simple to extend.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
None
Domain
clidocumentation
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Basic Julia knowledgeUnderstanding of docstrings
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
65
Research direction
Locate the `apropos` function definition in Julia's base source (likely in `base/docs/` or `base/`). Examine the current output format and the structure of docstrings. Implement the enhancement to print the first non code line after the function name, and optionally create a new type to hold results. Consider backward compatibility and the suggestion about non REPL usage. Review the existing comments in the issue for any consensus or concerns.