[Idle-dev] Documentation on Unix/Linux

[Stephen M. Gava]

> In contrast, on Linux the standard Python installer does not include
> documentation, and IDLE has a menu option that goes to the python.org web

Which Linux distro are you talking about?  Most users on Linux (/ and or 
other unix / unix-like platforms) might not be installing python from a set 
of tarballs or building it from source (although that's what I do on Linux 
and on FreeBSD) but will be installing it from the packages (or in the case 
of the BSD's posiibly 'ports') provided with their distribution.  The various 
distributions break up the packages in different ways and sometimes install 
different components of python (including the docs) in different places. Also 
in the case of multiple python versions installed on the one machine (which 
developers often have for testing purposes) there can be more than one set of 
docs installed in more than one place.

> put the documentation? Or do you always go to the web site?

Yep, idle (curently at least) defaults to looking up the docs on the web. If 
and when you choose to install a local set of docs you can set up whatever 
way of looking at the local copy you choose (browser link on your desktop or 
menus or a simple mod to idle or whatever).  Personally I don't call the 
python docs from within idle,  I have an icon in my windowmaker dock that 
loads in index page of my own that links to a lot of the development 
documentation I regularly use, including that for python. Folk who prefer 
other window managers or setups would have things set up completely 
differently to suit themselves.

-- 
Stephen M. Gava  <elguavas@users.sourceforge.net>
IDLEfork ( http://idlefork.sourceforge.net )  " just like IDLE, only crunchy "