Encapsulate() documentation incorrect about Complete() and Fault()

Question

The documentation for DataflowBlock.Encapsulate() says:

The propagator's IDataflowBlock implementation delegates to the specified source.

On the other hand, Guide to Implementing Custom TPL Dataflow Blocks says:

The rule of thumb throughout TPL Dataflow is that block completion should be explicitly passed from sources to targets. Therefore the IDataflowBlock.Complete() and IDataflowBlock.Fault() methods are wired to target while the IDataflowBlock.Completion property is wired to source.

To me, the latter makes more sense and my tests indicate the actual implementation does it this way too. Could the documentation be fixed? Thanks.

BTW, I think the documentation of TPL Dataflow should be expanded. A lot. For example, the documentation for probably the most complicated block, BatchedJoinBlock, pretty much consists of a single sentence. I was hoping this would improve with the final release of .Net 4.5, but that didn't happen.

Answer 1

svick, thanks for pointing this out.  We will work to get this fixed.  With regards to expanding our documentation, it is always an ongoing effort.  We should have some more content soon.