Dartdoc didn't complain about invalid reference

[goderbauer]

See https://github.com/flutter/flutter/pull/143588/files.

I would have expected that the following doc comment generates a dartdoc error because "SnackBarAction." (note the dot at the end) is not a valid reference. Instead, it silently interprets [SnackBarAction.] as [SnackBarAction] and links to the class. So, we totally missed, that the reference was incomplete.

/// Overrides default value for [SnackBarAction.].

[goderbauer]

The rendered HTML also shows the link with a strange extra dot:

[srawlins]

This one is tricky though. Not everything between [] is a reference. We should only interpret code in a pattern like \[[a-zA-Z0-9_]+(\.[a-zA-Z0-9_]+(\.[a-zA-Z0-9_]+)?)?\] as a reference.

So the correct behavior is probably to just not consider [Foo.] as a reference (which is what the analyzer does). It wouldn't be reported either. Users are generally just allowed to write square brackets with non-code references between.

[goderbauer]

Users are generally just allowed to write square brackets with non-code references between.

Really? I thought if I write [Foo] and Foo is not a class or anything else referencable dartdoc throws an error. I have definitely seen dartdoc complain about this.

[srawlins]

Yes, dartdoc does that. But if you write text that doesn't fit the pattern above, like /// check out list[0] or /// hello [weird parenthetical remark]., then both the analyzer and dartdoc think, "well i don't think they're trying to write any kind of reference to an element..." and does not complain.