[docs] How do we find information about modules that aren't officially part of the python.org canon?

[Bryan Zimmer]

June 18, 2019 11:00 PM

Dear folks,

First, allow me to congratulate you on the excellent job you keep doing in
documenting the python that we know and love, the "CPython" canon as we
know it because of your work, published by python.org.

My question is, how do we find any kind of documentation for the many, many
modules that are written by third parties, and not owned or cared for by
python.org?

I began to use Fedora Linux about 6 moths ago, after being a Slackware
aficionado for many more years. I have tried other Linuxes, but for the
purpose of my question, let's stick to the Unix work-alike product known as
Fedora Core -- now we have progressed to issue 30 - Fedora 30, as they call
it.

Fedora 30 has easy-to-use software repositories. In a search I conducted
using the package installer known as "dnfdragora," I discovered a huge
number of modules for both python 2 and 3 (which surprises me - I leaned on
Python 3 and keep forgetting that there are many Python 2 users who are
dedicated to Python and still consider the language their own.)

These modules were written by third parties that are well-integrated with
the Python canon that is documented so well at https://docs.python.org/3/.
The modules appear to be written in a good Python style, and to fulfill
many of the needs of Python users, other than the fairly vast numbers of
modules that I am calling the Python.org canon. The install well into the
sys.path, and many are packages (which I have learned to recognize because
of the file __init__.py in the directory/directories.)

In my case, I discovered a number of python3 modules that help with the
task of writing elegant, consistent, and useful command-line programs.
These are the programs that I like to write, primarily because they may do
work "behind the scenes"," hearkening back to the days when I used to
program in a combination of C and Assembly languages.

For example, there are modules known as python3-cliff and python3-clint,
which claim to offer many useful tools for writers of command-line
programs. And there are at least 8 more that are offered by the same
repositories. I downloaded and installed them, but I didn't know what to do
except read the README.rst file they put in /usr/share/doc/<module name>.
That didn't give me much information I could sink my teeth into. I also
tried studying the source code. I choose python3-cliff. I discovered (so
far) a very interesting collection of classes and some (apparently test
apps, but I didn't know how to run the test apps buried in a package that
includes of the rest of the cliff system. I tried to import them, first
into the python interpreter. But no luck there, except the interpreter
noted there were no mistakes - the classes just left no __main__ section by
which the classes could be tested. Then I tried IDLE, with very little
success, except to verify that the test app and other modules I tried to
run were "just" classes. I browsed the web a bit and so far have come up
with no information regarding python3-cliff.

All this leads me to wonder if some sort of documentation exists, but I
haven't known where to find it. Hopefully you know some things about this
that I clearly don't.

I apologize for the length of this email. I wanted you to get a sense of
what I mean when I ask, "How do we find information about modules that
aren't officially part of the python.org canon?"

Thanks for reading this and I do hope/wish for a response for you, who must
be very busy.

Bryan A. Zimmer
bazthelinuxguy at gmail.com
(651) 492-9388
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