Compared to the Python documentation, I find that Julia documentation are much harder to read.
For example, the rand function:
rand([rng=GLOBAL_RNG], [S], [dims...])
How should I interpret this? What do the brackets mean? Which parameters are optional, and which are not?
Also, in Flux's documentation for Dense:
Dense(in, out, σ=identity; bias=true, init=glorot_uniform)
Why are some parameters separated by commas and others by semicolons?
The parameters is square brackets [] are optional - this is a convention for documentation across many programming languages - this is not a part of language syntax though. Hence all parameters for rand are optional and you can do just rand.
Actually it is a good idea to try to type methods(rand) in the console to see the huge number of methods required to cover all such use cases:
julia> methods(rand)
# 80 methods for generic function "rand":
[1] rand() in Random at c:\Julia-1.7.2\share\julia\stdlib\v1.7\Random\src\Random.jl:257
.....
Semicolon is a part of syntax used for separating positional parameters from named parameters in Julia functions. As an example consider a function:
function foo(a, b=4; c, d=8)
return a+b+c+d
end
Than you could do:
julia> foo(1,c=100)
113
