[Python-Dev] The docs, reloaded (original) (raw)

Josiah Carlson jcarlson at uci.edu
Sat May 19 19:48:29 CEST 2007

Georg Brandl <g.brandl at gmx.net> wrote:

Hi,

over the last few weeks I've hacked on a new approach to Python's documentation. As Python already has an excellent documentation framework, the docutils, with a readable yet extendable markup format, reST, I thought that it should be possible to use those instead of the current LaTeX->latex2html toolchain. For the impatient: the result can be seen at <http://pydoc.gbrandl.de>.

I'm generally a curmudgeon when it comes to 'the docs could be done better'. But this? I like it. A lot. Especially if you can get these other features in:

- a "quick-dispatch" function: e.g., docs.python.org/q?os.path.split would redirect you to the matching location. - "interactive patching": provide an "propose edit" link, leading to a Wiki-like page where you can edit the source. From the result, a diff is generated, which can be accepted, edited or rejected by the development team. This is even more straightforward than plain old comments. - the same infrastructure could be used for developers, with automatic checkin into subversion.

I'm a bit iffy on yet another tool, but if roundup integration could be done, I think it would be great.

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