omissions in python docs?

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • 7stud

    #1

    omissions in python docs?

    Hi,

    1) The shelve module doesn't list close() as a method.

    2) The fnmatch module does not even mention translate().

    I have a hard time believing I am the first one to notice those
    omissions. Are the docs just old and poorly maintained? Or, is there
    some reason those methods were omitted?

  • =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=22Martin_v=2E_L=F6wis=22?=

    #2
    Re: omissions in python docs?

    7stud schrieb:
    I have a hard time believing I am the first one to notice those
    omissions. Are the docs just old and poorly maintained? Or, is there
    some reason those methods were omitted?
    You are likely the first one to notice, and then talk about that.

    It often happened in the past that patches were admitted which don't
    simultaneously update the documentation, hence they diverge. These
    days, patches are regularly rejected for not providing proper
    documentation changes.

    As you now found a difference, please write a patch and submit it
    to sf.net/projects/python.

    Regards,
    Martin

    Comment

    • memracom@yahoo.com

      #3
      Re: omissions in python docs?

      It often happened in the past that patches were admitted which don't
      simultaneously update the documentation, hence they diverge. These
      days, patches are regularly rejected for not providing proper
      documentation changes.
      Nevertheless, the docs *ARE* old and poorly maintained. Sometimes you
      find the info that you need in the docs, and other times Google is a
      better source of information. I find that the weakest part of many
      module docs are the examples.

      Comment

      • =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=22Martin_v=2E_L=F6wis=22?=

        #4
        Re: omissions in python docs?

        memracom@yahoo. com schrieb:
        >It often happened in the past that patches were admitted which don't
        >simultaneous ly update the documentation, hence they diverge. These
        >days, patches are regularly rejected for not providing proper
        >documentatio n changes.
        >
        Nevertheless, the docs *ARE* old and poorly maintained.
        I agree they are old, but they are *not* poorly maintained.
        There is a strict policy that changes to the code *must*
        be accompanied by documentation updates, and contributed
        documentation patches are quickly integrated (more quickly
        than code changes). So from a maintenance point of view,
        the documentation is at a better standing than the code.

        Regards,
        Martin

        Comment

        • Steve Holden

          #5
          Re: omissions in python docs?

          Martin v. Löwis wrote:
          7stud schrieb:
          >I have a hard time believing I am the first one to notice those
          >omissions. Are the docs just old and poorly maintained? Or, is there
          >some reason those methods were omitted?
          >
          You are likely the first one to notice, and then talk about that.
          >
          It often happened in the past that patches were admitted which don't
          simultaneously update the documentation, hence they diverge. These
          days, patches are regularly rejected for not providing proper
          documentation changes.
          >
          As you now found a difference, please write a patch and submit it
          to sf.net/projects/python.
          >
          Please note that the documentation patch doesn't need to be in the Latex
          source format used to produce the docs - editors will add any necessary
          markup.

          regards
          Steve
          --
          Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119
          Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com
          Skype: holdenweb http://del.icio.us/steve.holden
          ------------------ Asciimercial ---------------------
          Get on the web: Blog, lens and tag your way to fame!!
          holdenweb.blogs pot.com squidoo.com/pythonology
          tagged items: del.icio.us/steve.holden/python
          All these services currently offer free registration!
          -------------- Thank You for Reading ----------------

          Comment

          • Gabriel Genellina

            #6
            Re: omissions in python docs?

            En Thu, 17 May 2007 13:39:43 -0300, 7stud <bbxx789_05ss@y ahoo.com>
            escribió:
            2) The fnmatch module does not even mention translate().
            >
            I have a hard time believing I am the first one to notice those
            omissions.
            At least for 2) you're late. It's already documented on 2.5.1:
            http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index...70&atid=105470

            --
            Gabriel Genellina

            Comment

            • John Machin

              #7
              Re: omissions in python docs?

              On May 18, 9:24 am, "Gabriel Genellina" <gagsl-...@yahoo.com.a r>
              wrote:
              En Thu, 17 May 2007 13:39:43 -0300, 7stud <bbxx789_0...@y ahoo.com>
              escribió:
              >
              2) The fnmatch module does not even mention translate().
              >
              I have a hard time believing I am the first one to notice those
              omissions.
              >
              At least for 2) you're late. It's already documented on 2.5.1:http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index...d=1630844&grou...
              >
              Not quite. All that says is that you raised the problem and that
              somebody else's patch was accepted.

              It's not in 2.5.1 AFAICT: not in "current docs" on Python website, not
              in CHM file distributed with Windows version of Python 2.5.1

              It is in "developmen t docs'" (2.6a0) on Python website.

              Nit-pickingly yours,
              John

              Comment

              • 7stud

                #8
                Re: omissions in python docs?

                On May 17, 5:24 pm, "Gabriel Genellina" <gagsl-...@yahoo.com.a r>
                wrote:
                At least for 2) you're late. It's already documented on 2.5.1:http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index...d=1630844&grou...
                >
                Darn. I could have been somebody!
                >Nit-pickingly yours,
                >John
                No so. I checked the downloaded docs on my computer and the supposedly
                up to date docs here:

                Source code: Lib/fnmatch.py This module provides support for Unix shell-style wildcards, which are not the same as regular expressions (which are documented in the re module). The special character...


                before posting. I rechecked them after reading Gabriel Genellina's
                post, and I couldn't find translate() in the fnmatch module.

                There's still time!

                Comment

                • 7stud

                  #9
                  Re: omissions in python docs?

                  On May 17, 7:23 pm, 7stud <bbxx789_0...@y ahoo.comwrote:
                  On May 17, 5:24 pm, "Gabriel Genellina" <gagsl-...@yahoo.com.a r>
                  wrote:
                  >
                  At least for 2) you're late. It's already documented on 2.5.1:http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index...d=1630844&grou...
                  >
                  Darn. I could have been somebody!
                  >
                  Nit-pickingly yours,
                  John
                  >
                  No so. I checked the downloaded docs on my computer and the supposedly
                  up to date docs here:
                  >
                  Source code: Lib/fnmatch.py This module provides support for Unix shell-style wildcards, which are not the same as regular expressions (which are documented in the re module). The special character...

                  >
                  before posting. I rechecked them after reading Gabriel Genellina's
                  post, and I couldn't find translate() in the fnmatch module.
                  >
                  There's still time!
                  By the way, have the python doc keepers ever visited the php docs? In
                  my opinion, they are the best docs of any language I've encountered
                  because users can add posts to any page in the docs to correct them or
                  post code showing how to get around various idiosyncrasies when using
                  the functions.

                  Comment

                  • Gabriel Genellina

                    #10
                    Re: omissions in python docs?

                    En Thu, 17 May 2007 21:13:49 -0300, John Machin <sjmachin@lexic on.net>
                    escribió:
                    On May 18, 9:24 am, "Gabriel Genellina" <gagsl-...@yahoo.com.a r>
                    wrote:
                    >En Thu, 17 May 2007 13:39:43 -0300, 7stud <bbxx789_0...@y ahoo.com>
                    >escribió:
                    >>
                    2) The fnmatch module does not even mention translate().
                    >>
                    >At least for 2) you're late. It's already documented on
                    >2.5.1:http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index...d=1630844&grou...
                    >>
                    Not quite. All that says is that you raised the problem and that
                    somebody else's patch was accepted.
                    It's not in 2.5.1 AFAICT: not in "current docs" on Python website, not
                    in CHM file distributed with Windows version of Python 2.5.1
                    But it *is* corrected on the CHM file from Release 2.5.1c1 (5th April,
                    2007), and also in the source distribution for 2.5.1 final
                    (libfnmatch.tex ). I don't have the 2.5.1-final Windows binaries to check,
                    but if it's not updated there, perhaps there was a hiccup on the release
                    process.
                    And the docs on python.org aren't updated either. Hiccups comes in
                    sequence...

                    --
                    Gabriel Genellina

                    Comment

                    • Anthony Irwin

                      #11
                      Re: omissions in python docs?

                      7stud wrote:
                      On May 17, 7:23 pm, 7stud <bbxx789_0...@y ahoo.comwrote:
                      >
                      By the way, have the python doc keepers ever visited the php docs? In
                      my opinion, they are the best docs of any language I've encountered
                      because users can add posts to any page in the docs to correct them or
                      post code showing how to get around various idiosyncrasies when using
                      the functions.
                      >
                      Hi,

                      I also like the php docs and love that you can type any function into
                      the search at php.net and the documentation just comes up and there is
                      example code and then user comments also.

                      --
                      Kind Regards,
                      Anthony Irwin



                      email: anthony at above domains, - www.

                      Comment

                      • Terry Reedy

                        #12
                        Re: omissions in python docs?


                        "Anthony Irwin" <nospam@noemail here.nowherewro te in message
                        news:f2j8sr$s3h $1@news-01.bur.connect. com.au...
                        | 7stud wrote:
                        | On May 17, 7:23 pm, 7stud <bbxx789_0...@y ahoo.comwrote:
                        | >
                        | By the way, have the python doc keepers ever visited the php docs? In
                        | my opinion, they are the best docs of any language I've encountered
                        | because users can add posts to any page in the docs to correct them or
                        | post code showing how to get around various idiosyncrasies when using
                        | the functions.
                        | >
                        | I also like the php docs and love that you can type any function into
                        | the search at php.net and the documentation just comes up and there is
                        | example code and then user comments also.

                        Reactions to php docs are rather idiosyncratic. I did visit in response to
                        such positive recommendations and and consider them to be pretty bad, and
                        posted why at the time.

                        tjr



                        Comment

                        • Stargaming

                          #13
                          Re: omissions in python docs?

                          Anthony Irwin wrote:
                          7stud wrote:
                          >
                          >On May 17, 7:23 pm, 7stud <bbxx789_0...@y ahoo.comwrote:
                          >>
                          >By the way, have the python doc keepers ever visited the php docs? In
                          >my opinion, they are the best docs of any language I've encountered
                          >because users can add posts to any page in the docs to correct them or
                          >post code showing how to get around various idiosyncrasies when using
                          >the functions.
                          >>
                          >
                          Hi,
                          >
                          I also like the php docs and love that you can type any function into
                          the search at php.net and the documentation just comes up and there is
                          example code and then user comments also.
                          >
                          For searching, we got at least pyhelp.cgi_.

                          HTH,
                          Stargaming

                          ... _pyhelp.cgi: http://starship.python.net/crew/theller/pyhelp.cgi

                          Comment

                          Working...