Alias for attribute causes aliasing method to appear in Attributes section

[gemmaro]

When defining an alias for an attribute in a class, the aliasing method is incorrectly displayed in the attributes section of the generated documentation.

For example, consider the following code in lib/foo.rb:

class Foo
  attr :bar
  alias baz bar
end

When running rdoc, the documentation for the Foo class shows:

This behavior is misleading, as baz is not a separate attribute but an alias method for bar method (and attribute). It would be beneficial to adjust the documentation generation to prevent alias methods from appearing in the attributes section.

[flavorjones]

Reproduced this behavior on v6.11.0.

@gemmaro Can you help me understand what you expect to see? It sounds like you want to completely omit mentioning the alias, but I think there's value in mentioning it as an alias, perhaps similar to how rdoc renders non-attribute methods:

WDYT?

[gemmaro]

@flavorjones I agree that having links between aliasing methods and aliased attributes is beneficial. Here's what I expect to see, based on the Darkfish theme (though it may vary in other themes):

• Aliasing method names should be listed under the instance methods section (e.g., "Public Instance Methods").
• Each aliasing method should have its own document comment.
• The description of the aliasing method should include a link to the aliased instance variable, labeled as "Alias for:".
• The aliased attribute should link back to the aliasing methods, indicated as "Also aliased as:".
• The left side menu should include the aliasing method under the "Methods" section.

For example, consider the following lib/foo.rb:

class Foo
  # Some document comment about bar.
  attr :bar

  # Some document comment about baz.
  alias baz bar

  # Some document comment about qux.
  def qux; end

  # Some document comment about quux.
  alias quux qux
end

Currently, RDoc generates:

What I expect to see is:

manually edited diff for op_dir/Foo.html

diff --git a/doc/Foo.html b/doc/Foo.html
index b521e85..c61b374 100644
--- a/doc/Foo.html
+++ b/doc/Foo.html
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@
   <h3>Methods</h3>
 
   <ul class="link-list" role="directory">
+    <li ><a href="#method-i-baz">#baz</a>
     <li ><a href="#method-i-quux">#quux</a>
     <li ><a href="#method-i-qux">#qux</a>
   </ul>
@@ -107,15 +108,9 @@
         <div class="method-description">
         <p>Some document comment about bar.</p>
         </div>
-      </div>
-      <div id="attribute-i-baz" class="method-detail">
-        <div class="method-heading attribute-method-heading">
-          <span class="method-name">baz</span><span
-            class="attribute-access-type">[R]</span>
-        </div>
 
-        <div class="method-description">
-        <p>Some document comment about bar.</p>
+        <div class="aliases">
+          Also aliased as: <a href="Foo.html#method-i-baz">baz</a>
         </div>
       </div>
     </section>
@@ -126,6 +121,21 @@
          <h3>Public Instance Methods</h3>
        </header>
 
+       <div id="method-i-baz" class="method-detail">
+        <div class="method-heading attribute-method-heading">
+          <span class="method-name">baz</span><span
+            class="method-args">()</span>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="method-description">
+        <p>Some document comment about baz.</p>
+        </div>
+
+        <div class="aliases">
+          Alias for: <a href="Foo.html#attribute-i-bar">bar</a>
+        </div>
+      </div>
+
       <div id="method-i-quux" class="method-detail method-alias">
         <div class="method-header">
           <div class="method-heading">

[extern-c]

Hi. Can I work on this issue?

[flavorjones]

@extern-c If you would like to, please do! Feel free to ping me if you want to ask any questions or talk about any ideas.