[DOC-SIG] Python Library Reference in new HTML form

[Fred L. Drake]

Laurence Tratt writes:
 > What sort of things that were \code aren't \code any more? I have to 
 > admit I couldn't discern any obvious rules for \<character> and such 
 > like, so some rationalisation does seem sensible :)

  Now, there's \module, \function, \class, \cfunction, \method,
\member, \exception, \keyword, \email, \url, \mimetype, ....
  There's also \manpage, which takes 2 parameters (name and section).
This is used to avoid inconsistent presentation, and is easy to
convert.  \rfc, \program, \deprecated, ....
  \envvar is used for environment variables, and does magical indexing 
things.
  \*modindex now sets the initial "index subitem" automatically
to "(in module #1)", and \renewcommand{\indexsubitem}{(stuff)} is now
\setindexsubitem{(stuff)} -- there's a better chance of getting it to
work with LaTeX2HTML.  I'm hoping to eventually get rid of that kind
of stuff, mostly so the SGML version is less polluted.  There's also
\modindex and \exmodindex, for use in documenting modules that aren't
part of the standard library.  For each \*modindex, there's a matching 
\ref*modindex, that adds an index entry.  The \*modindex macros are
now only used in the "defining" section for each module, and the page
number is made bold in the index.
  There's a {classdesc} environment that looks just like the
{funcdesc} (since that's what had been used for classes), but drops
the "()" from the entry in the index, and uses an implied indexsubitem 
of "(class in <module>)".  I really should add {memberdesc} and
{methoddesc} environments; probably will before the release, but won't 
get to converting content to use them yet.  I've not decided on
exactly the signatures they should have.
  \seemodule produces "hot" links in the HTML and PDF versions.
  If you haven't looked at the printed formats from the last release,
they look a lot better.
  There's also some (preliminary) support for a smaller class of
documents, which Andrew Kuchling and I are calling the "Python HOWTO"
documents.  There will be more about that in the release.

 > Any added index commands is almost certainly a good thing. I think 
 > there's a lot of scope for adding lots of things to the index.

  There are definately more entries, but it's still a matter of adding 
things as we think of them; we've not "written an index" at this
point.

 > It's Microsoft triple-sided paper. Guaranteed, and very 
 > user-friendly.

  Oh, that kind.  Maybe I'll pass; the third side isn't as useful if
you can't flip back to the first side to refer to something.  ;-)


  -Fred

--
Fred L. Drake, Jr.
fdrake@cnri.reston.va.us
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
1895 Preston White Drive    Reston, VA  20191

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