Travis Oliphant wrote:

I want to let people know that I've started a little project to remove docstrings from c-code and place them in a python module that will dynamically add docstrings to builtin functions. I don't know about you, but I hate writing docstrings in C-code. It's much harder to get the formatting to look right, and it's much more painful than in Python. Also, having all the docstrings in one place might actually make for a nice little reference.

I don't know what kind of loading speed impact this will have (if any), so I'm proceeding cautiously. Currently, there is a simple utitlity called add_docstring in the _compiled_base module that can add a docstring to a builtin-function-or-method object or a type object. It only works if the object does not already have a docstring (because once added the Python string is never released until Python exits).

Great! I also hate writing docstrings in C, and this may significantly lower the barrier for users to contribute docstring patches. It's a lot easier (esp. if a user is not a C programmer) to edit a plain python file full of """strings""" than to dig into the C sources. Since documentation is an area where users who don't feel comfortable with the internals can still make excellent contributions, I think this is an excellent development. Cheers, f