[Cython] Suggestion of adding working examples to website

[Ian Bell]

One "feature" that matplotlib (Python's 2D plotting library) has which
makes it easy to jump into matplotlib is the huge section of working
examples: http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/examples/index.html and
http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/gallery.html .  From this, within a
couple of days you can get minimally proficient with matplotlib.  Having
been (and continuing to be) a new user of Cython, I have found the learning
curve to be very steep.  The documentation online is pretty good (though it
could use some work in places).  Sometimes all it would take would be some
working examples and the documentation would be completely clear.  I taught
myself the use of matplotlib through the old cut&paste and iterate method.

I find that the one thing that is consistently the most challenging about
the Cython docs is the lack of distutils setup.py files for more
interesting configurations.  Without them it requires a certain amount of
guessing, playing, and Googling to make sense of how the pieces are
supposed to go together.  A working examples section could be VERY helpful
in this regards.  Also, the options for the distutils extensions are not
documented at all so far as I can tell.  Since the docs were built with
Sphinx, it ought to be pretty easy to pull in docstrings if they exist.

Just my 2 cents.  I would be happy to work with you all to compile some
simple examples for common uses - like the numpy convolve example for
instance, and the integration example as well.

Regards,
Ian
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/cython-devel/attachments/20120505/42c435db/attachment.html>