Issue 1489051: keyword and topic help broken in Pythonwin IDE (original) (raw)

Issue1489051

Created on 2006-05-15 18:46 by bscrivener, last changed 2022-04-11 14:56 by admin. This issue is now closed.

Messages (19)
msg28543 - (view)	Author: BartlebyScrivener (bscrivener)	Date: 2006-05-15 18:46
Using ActivePython 2.4.3 on Windows XP While in the Pythonwin IDE, if I seek keyword help by issuing the following command: >>>help ('while') I get: Sorry, topic and keyword documentation is not available because the Python HTML documentation files could not be found. If you have installed them, please set the environment variable PYTHONDOCS to indicate their location. My PYTHONDOCS variable is set to: c:\python24\Doc\Python-Docs-2.4.2\ref which appears to be correct (ie the help html files are installed there). Searching this group, I found someone else complaining about the same behavior with no clear resolution. http://tinyurl.com/pblev See also http://tinyurl.com/mbokp
msg28544 - (view)	Author: Josiah Carlson (josiahcarlson) *	Date: 2006-05-20 07:00
Logged In: YES user_id=341410 Since you are using the Pythonwin IDE, which was written and is supported by Mark Hammond via the pywin32 project, perhaps you should be visiting his project page instead: http://sf.net/projects/pywin32
msg28545 - (view)	Author: BartlebyScrivener (bscrivener)	Date: 2006-05-21 00:51
Logged In: YES user_id=1523094 help('topic') or help('keyword') doesn't work in IDLE or Pythonwin IDE
msg28546 - (view)	Author: Georg Brandl (georg.brandl) *	Date: 2006-05-29 21:00
Logged In: YES user_id=849994 Closing as 3rd party.
msg28547 - (view)	Author: BartlebyScrivener (bscrivener)	Date: 2006-05-29 22:19
Logged In: YES user_id=1523094 Sorry, if I was unclear. IDLE is not third party, is it? So I'm saying that on Windows XP, using the install from Python.org help() is BROKEN. Search in the Python Google group and you'll find many other references to same. Pydoc no longer provides help on topic or keywords. It will do modules. In short it's PYDOC that is broken, not Pythonwin IDE. Thanks, rick
msg28548 - (view)	Author: Georg Brandl (georg.brandl) *	Date: 2006-05-29 22:24
Logged In: YES user_id=849994 Okay, reopening.
msg28549 - (view)	Author: Josiah Carlson (josiahcarlson) *	Date: 2006-05-29 22:30
Logged In: YES user_id=341410 From what I understand, HTML help hasn't shipped with Python on Windows for a few releases (likely around the time that .chm help files started shipping). If you've got html help files installed, and it's still not picking them up, could you dig deeper into why this is the case.
msg28550 - (view)	Author: Ziga Seilnacht (zseil) *	Date: 2006-05-30 00:42
Logged In: YES user_id=1326842 The problem is on your side. You should set the PYTHONDOCS environment variable to the root directory of the html documentation, eg.: PYTHONDOCS=c:\python24\Doc\Python-Docs-2.4.2 and not: PYTHONDOCS=c:\python24\Doc\Python-Docs-2.4.2\ref
msg28551 - (view)	Author: BartlebyScrivener (bscrivener)	Date: 2006-05-30 00:45
Logged In: YES user_id=1523094 >> From what I understand, HTML help hasn't shipped with >> Python on Windows for a few releases (likely around the >> time that .chm help files started shipping). The two tiny urls, esp. the second one illuminate just where the bug is in Pydoc, but the fix recommended by the poster doesn't work. The problem happens even after downloading html help and pointing pydoc to it in the Pythondocs environment variable. I don't know enough to explore further, which is why I need a nice working help function :) I would think this would be an urgent fix for Python evangelism. rd
msg28552 - (view)	Author: Martin v. Löwis (loewis) *	Date: 2006-06-04 20:20
Logged In: YES user_id=21627 bscrivener, please run hh -decompile c:\python24\doc\html c:\python24\Doc\python24.chm and report whether that fixes the problem.
msg28553 - (view)	Author: BartlebyScrivener (bscrivener)	Date: 2006-06-04 20:39
Logged In: YES user_id=1523094 >> bscrivener, please run >> hh -decompile c:\python24\doc\html c:\python24\Doc\python24.chm >> and report whether that fixes the problem. Fixed! Thank you. I'll share with comp.lang.python next time somebody else has the same problem. Thank you, loewis!
msg57616 - (view)	Author: Joseph Armbruster (JosephArmbruster)	Date: 2007-11-18 14:17
Is there any reason this is not part of the windows installer? So, that if you select to install the full Documentation feature, this as a checkbox-type option to 'build html documentation'? Thoughts?
msg57618 - (view)	Author: Martin v. Löwis (loewis) *	Date: 2007-11-18 17:44
The reason this is not part of the Windows installer is twofold: a) nobody ever thought of making it so, ever since the htmlhelp was added, and b) no code was contributed to add such a procedure to the Windows installer. Contributions are welcome, although I would prefer a way to open htmlhelp from IDLE, rather than more-than-doubling the size of the installed documentation.
msg66968 - (view)	Author: Terry J. Reedy (terry.reedy) *	Date: 2008-05-16 22:20
Py3.0a5 installed in C;/Program Files/ Start/Python30/Python Manuals, using Python30.chm, works great. Thank you for that. In the interpreter (and IDLE) help(object) works fine. Ditto. But for topics and keywords, I got the same message as the OP. Opinion: After 2 years, I think the priority of this issue should be raised: help should 'just work' as installed, especially on Windows. Until is does, the instructions need to be improved so that normal users and Python beginners, and not just DOS/Windows experts, can fix it. The instruction ''' On the Microsoft Windows operating system, the files can be built by running "hh -decompile . PythonNN.chm" in the C:\PythonNN\Doc> directory.''' makes several assumptions about knowledge that many do not have. Since a running Python knows its version and starting location, it should make the implied substitutions itself. With that done, here are two possible interpretations of 'run... in..." 1. '''Open Start/Run, enter "hh -decompile . C:/Program Files/Python30/Doc/Python30.chm" in the box, and click OK'''. [Since I did not try this, I do not really know if this will put the result in the right place.] 2. '''Open Start/All programs/Accessories/Command Prompt, enter "cd C:/Program Files/Python30/Doc", enter "dir" to check that Python30.chm is present, enter "hh -decompile . Python30.chm", and enter "dir' again and you should see several new files and directories.''' I suspect that very few of additions are needed by help() for topics and keywords. If I am correct, then instead of a complete decompile,... Suggestion 1a (permanent): When installing on Windows, include in /Doc the minimum html files needed by help() so no decompile is needed. Suggestion 1b (interim): expand instructions as indicated above. After closing and restarting Python, I still got the same error message. I assumed "because the Python HTML documentation files could not be found. If you have installed them, please set the environment variable PYTHONDOCS to indicate their location." indicated the problem. But what should one do with more than one version of Python present, which is or will be normal for most who install 3.0. Suggeston 2a (permanent): help should just look in the default location for the version it is running on. Or it should set its own copy on first use. Or the interpreter should. Suggestion 2b (interim): give details on how to set an e.v. Python is the first Windows XP program I can remember that asked me to do this. XP procedure: To set for all users, switch to admin account. Open Start/Control Panel/System. Click Advanced tab and Environment Variables button. For all users, add a System variable. Otherwise, add a User variable. In either case, set PYTHONDOCS to "C:\Program Files\Python30\Doc" However, after I did this, I restarted Python, and listed os.environ.items() to verify ('PYTHONDOCS', 'C:\\Program Files\\Python30\\Doc'). However help still does not work. ?????
msg66971 - (view)	Author: Martin v. Löwis (loewis) *	Date: 2008-05-16 22:36
> Opinion: After 2 years, I think the priority of this issue should be > raised: help should 'just work' as installed, especially on Windows. > Until is does, the instructions need to be improved so that normal users > and Python beginners, and not just DOS/Windows experts, can fix it. Counter-opinion: contributions are welcome. Raising the priority does NOTHING to accelerate the processing. The effecting of raisig it a little is zero; the effect of raising it much is that it gets lowered if it remains unresolved an a release approaches. > However, after I did this, I restarted Python, and listed > os.environ.items() to verify ('PYTHONDOCS', 'C:\\Program > Files\\Python30\\Doc'). However help still does not work. ????? Without checking: it's most likely that the actual HTML file names have changed in 2.6, so that the interactive invocation of HTML pages would work on no system. Either you provide a fix, or it remains unfixed until somebody provides a fix. Unassigning myself, as I will have no time to work on this in the coming months.
msg86613 - (view)	Author: Daniel Diniz (ajaksu2) *	Date: 2009-04-26 22:11
Would adding a .bat file to run "hh -decompile" be acceptable?
msg86644 - (view)	Author: Martin v. Löwis (loewis) *	Date: 2009-04-27 05:08
> Would adding a .bat file to run "hh -decompile" be acceptable? I don't quite understand the proposed solution: Would you merely add the batch file, or would you also run it automatically? If so, at what point? If you run it automatically, you also need to provide a mechanism to remove all these files on uninstallation.
msg89373 - (view)	Author: Terry J. Reedy (terry.reedy) *	Date: 2009-06-14 22:23
Something changed in the past year so that keyword and topic help work in 3.2rc2 at both the main prompt and help prompt. Thanks to whoever. If this is also fixed in 2.6.2 or even 2.6 in SVN, this can be closed. >>> help('while') The ``while`` statement... ... >>> help('ASSERTION') The ``assert`` statement... ... help> while The ``while`` statement ... help> ASSERTION The ``assert`` statement
msg89386 - (view)	Author: Georg Brandl (georg.brandl) *	Date: 2009-06-15 04:44
Very good :)