I encountered the following in an online Python course:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
help(plt.hist)
hist(x, bins=None, range=None, density=None,
weights=None, cumulative=False, bottom=None,
histtype='bar', align='mid', orientation='vertical',
rwidth=None, log=False, color=None, label=None,
stacked=False, normed=None, hold=None, data=None,
**kwargs)
Plot a histogram.
Compute and draw the histogram of *x*. The return value
is a tuple (*n*, *bins*, *patches*) or ([*n0*, *n1*,
...], *bins*, [*patches0*, *patches1*,...]) if the input
contains multiple data.
There are plenty of webpages explaining an asterisk prefix, but Main question: Is straddling with asterisks just an indication of bolding or italicizing the argument name?
On a related note, I use to think of annotations straddling some code as "adornment". However, I haven't been able to clearly corroborate this with web searches. What little I found seems to indicate that adornment refers to adding code to code in a more complicated ways than simple straddling. Secondary question: What is the commonly accepted definition of adornment?