[issue19980] Improve help('non-topic') response

[Serhiy Storchaka]

Serhiy Storchaka added the comment:

There is a problem with the patch. When you are in interactive help utility, then the request 'help' runs nested interactive help utility. The difference between unpatched behavior is that now you need press Ctrl-D or 'q' twice to exit to normal Python interpreter. When you type 'help' repeatedly, your could run third, fourth, etc nested help utility.

Here is modified patch. Now help('help') produces the same output as help(help), but the 'help' request in interactive help utility prints help intro message.


>>> help('help')
Help on _Helper in module _sitebuiltins object:

help = class _Helper(builtins.object)
 |  Define the builtin 'help'.
 |  
 |  This is a wrapper around pydoc.help that provides a helpful message
 |  when 'help' is typed at the Python interactive prompt.
 |  
 |  Calling help() at the Python prompt starts an interactive help session.
 |  Calling help(thing) prints help for the python object 'thing'.
 |  
 |  Methods defined here:
 |  
 |  __call__(self, *args, **kwds)
 |  
 |  __repr__(self)
 |  
 |  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 |  Data descriptors defined here:
 |  
 |  __dict__
 |      dictionary for instance variables (if defined)
 |  
 |  __weakref__
 |      list of weak references to the object (if defined)

>>> help()

Welcome to Python 3.5's help utility!

If this is your first time using Python, you should definitely check out
the tutorial on the Internet at http://docs.python.org/3.5/tutorial/.

Enter the name of any module, keyword, or topic to get help on writing
Python programs and using Python modules.  To quit this help utility and
return to the interpreter, just type "quit".

To get a list of available modules, keywords, symbols, or topics, type
"modules", "keywords", "symbols", or "topics".  Each module also comes
with a one-line summary of what it does; to list the modules whose name
or summary contain a given string such as "spam", type "modules spam".

help> help

Welcome to Python 3.5's help utility!

If this is your first time using Python, you should definitely check out
the tutorial on the Internet at http://docs.python.org/3.5/tutorial/.

Enter the name of any module, keyword, or topic to get help on writing
Python programs and using Python modules.  To quit this help utility and
return to the interpreter, just type "quit".

To get a list of available modules, keywords, symbols, or topics, type
"modules", "keywords", "symbols", or "topics".  Each module also comes
with a one-line summary of what it does; to list the modules whose name
or summary contain a given string such as "spam", type "modules spam".
help>

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assignee: docs at python -> serhiy.storchaka
nosy: +serhiy.storchaka
Added file: http://bugs.python.org/file38278/issue19880v4.diff

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<http://bugs.python.org/issue19980>
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