The Undocumented Framework

The Framework help is full of undocumentation.  Consider the entry for the IBindingList.AddIndex method:

---

IBindingList.AddIndex Method

Adds the PropertyDescriptor to the indexes used for searching.

[Visual Basic]
Sub AddIndex( _
   ByVal property As PropertyDescriptor _
)

[C#]
void AddIndex(
   PropertyDescriptor property
);

[C++]
void AddIndex(
   PropertyDescriptor* property
);

[JScript]
function AddIndex(
   property : PropertyDescriptor
);

Parameters

property

The PropertyDescriptor to add to the indexes used for searching.

Remarks

The list must support this method. However, support for this method can be a nonoperation.

Requirements

Platforms: Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 2000, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, Windows Server 2003 family, .NET Compact Framework

See Also

IBindingList Interface | IBindingList Members | System.ComponentModel Namespace | IBindingList Members (Visual J# Syntax) | Managed Extensions for C++ Programming

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This is an example where quacking like a duck doesn't make you a duck.  This looks like documentation.  It shows up in the help along side of documentation, it's indexed like documentation, but it's not documentation.  It doesn't actually tell anyone anything they don't already know.

We all know that large swaths of the Framework are undocumented in exactly this way, and many v1.0 SDKs are, well, very undocumented. 

Honestly, my problem isn't that lots of stuff is undocumented, it's that Microsoft spent time writing this undocumentation, proof-reading this undocumentation, and putting this undocumentation through the same process as the real documentation.  I don't know how much time was spent undocumenting things, but I'm guessing that if you add it all up, it's a lot. 

That time could have been much better spent providing better documentation elsewhere than undocumentation here.

I guess on the documentation teams, there must be some law that no class, property, method, or event will show up in the help with a big, bold, "Undocumented". 

Can we stop pretending?  Can you just mark everything as Undocumented until you get around to writing real documentation for it?   Maybe even include a "Click here to vote to have this documented."

For a simple test, if it doesn't include a code example, it's not documented.  Just mark it as such and move on.