LFE Programming Rules and Conventions

10 Required Documents

This section describes some of the system level documents which are necessary for designing and maintaining system programmed using LFE.

From the perspective of a book, each set of documents would be a section or a "Part", e.g., "Part I" or "Part II". Each Part would then have one or more "Chapters".

The Parts we propose here are as follows:

  • Part I: Module Descriptions
  • Part II: Message Descriptions
  • Part III: Processes
  • Part IV: Error Messages

10.1 Module Descriptions

In a project book, the section dedicated to modules would have one chapter per module. Each chapter should start with a description of the module, and the list all exported functions as follows:

  • the meaning and data structures of the arguments to the functions
  • the meaning and data structure of the return value.
  • the purpose of the function
  • the possible causes of failure and exit signals which may be generated by explicit calls to exit/1.

10.2 Message Descriptions

The second section should have one or more chapters dedicated to detailing the format of all inter-process messages (except those defined inside one module).

10.3 Process

The third section should have a description of all registered servers in the system, along with their interface and purpose.

Also procide a description of the dynamic processes and their interfaces.

10.4 Error Messages

The fourth section should have a description of all the system's error messages.