[Python-Dev] introducing the experimental pyref wiki (original) (raw)
Fredrik Lundh fredrik at pythonware.com
Mon May 1 21:38:42 CEST 2006
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Tim Peters wrote:
> (Or are the two goals -- completeness and readability -- > incompossible, unable to be met at the same time by one document?)
No, but it's not easy, and it's not necessarily succinct. For an existence proof, see Guy Steele's "Common Lisp the Language". I don't think it's a coincidence that Steele worked on the readable "The Java Language Specification" either, or on the original Scheme spec. Google should hire him to work on Python docs now ;-)
on the other hand, it's important to realize that the Python audience have changed a lot since Guido wrote the first (carefully crafted, and mostly excellent) version of the language reference.
I'm sure Guy could create a document that even a martian could read [1], and I'm pretty sure that we could untangle the huge pile of peep- hole tweaks that the reference has accumulated and get back to some- thing close to Guido's original, but I'm not sure that is what the Python community needs.
(my goal is to turn pyref into more of a random-access encyclopedia, and less of an ISO-style "it's all there; just keep reading it over and over again until you get it" specification. it should be possible to link from the tutorial to a reference page without causing brain implosions)
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