[Python-Dev] Searching Python docs (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido@python.org
Fri, 05 Apr 2002 14:17:03 -0500

We currently have two documents that discuss the C API, though they take (mostly) different approaches. The API reference has a tolerable index (the symbols are there, at least), but the Extending & Embedding document doesn't have enough index entries to be very useful (so little we don't even include an index), even though it contains some strongly overlapping information.

I think it might be a good idea to merge the two documents, but I'm not certain I really like that. There is a strong need to add good index entries to the existing Extending & Embedding document at the very least, and a combined index would be very valuable. This is something that's been requested for the entire set of documents on many occaisions, and would be very handy. (Especially if we provided a better interface for it!)

The E&E document should be turned into a tutorial, with a bunch of platform specific things about building. The API reference documentation (in particular PyArg_ArgParse and Py_BuildValue) should be moved from the E&E document to the API document.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)