Questions about meta box: nonce and parameters available

Question

1st question is: is a nonce required for a meta box? i read on the wordpress codex add_meta_box and they have a nonce for the meta box, i'd thought that maybe the add post form will already include a nonce?

echo '<input type="hidden" name="myplugin_noncename" id="myplugin_noncename" value="' . wp_create_nonce( plugin_basename(__FILE__) ) . '" />';

2nd question is: whats the parameters available for the function that creates the markup of the meta box. from what i read in profesional wordpress looks like

function pp_meta($post, $box)

how will i know what parameters are available in such functions? and what does box refer to?

Answer 1

Not sure about nonces.

As for arguments it is probably their usage of add_meta_box():

$callback_args (array) (optional) Arguments to pass into your callback function. The callback will receive the $post object and whatever parameters are passed through this variable. Default: null

So $post is post object and $box is whatever they are passing in $callback_args