# HG changeset patch # User Santosh Vattam # Date 1273546644 -19800 # Node ID ca292a5b83c75d81e7f6346afb6bb6f14a42165c # Parent 331c5fdc06d4c4b3b0168a7005749a84e0671ca1 Minor edits to functions.org. diff -r 331c5fdc06d4 -r ca292a5b83c7 functions.org --- a/functions.org Wed May 05 19:18:30 2010 +0530 +++ b/functions.org Tue May 11 08:27:24 2010 +0530 @@ -22,17 +22,19 @@ equations. We shall first review these basics. Then we shall move on to other details such as doc-strings, default arguments and keyword arguments. + + First let's start IPython by typing ipython in the terminal. - Let's write a simple function that prints a Hello message, after + Let's write a simple function that prints a Hello message, upon accepting a name. def welcome(name): print "Hello", name - You would recall that def is a keyword that indicates a function + You would recall that def is a keyword that indicates the function definition. 'welcome' is the name of the function and 'name' is the lone argument to the function. Note that the function is - defined within an indented block, similar to any other block. Our + defined within an indented block, just like to any other block. Our function welcome just has one line in it's definition. We can call our function, as follows - @@ -55,7 +57,10 @@ Notice that the doc string uses triple quotes. If the doc-string exceeds one line, we can use new line characters in it. Also, as expected the doc-string is indented as is required - for anything within a block. + for anything within a block. Now that we have written the + documentation, how do we access it? IPython provides the question + mark feature that we have seen in the previous tutorials. welcome? + will display the docstring that we have just written. We shall now look at default arguments. [show slide with examples of functions with default arguments]