[Python-Dev] Call for clarity

Hunter Peress hu.peress@mail.mcgill.ca
07 Sep 2002 17:30:59 -0500


I've been using python for a good few months.

And im really bothered by some aspects of the documentation.

I think that there should be a clear effort to provide API style
information, rather than the mixed state that things currently are.

There are tools for C++/Java...that are part of the official
distributions that provide API style docs.

Here's what gets me: when u look up something in pydoc, you have no idea
what it returns/expects in terms of types. Now, since python is not an
explicitely typed language, I ask rhetorically, how can u have good docs
that tell u the return/input types without making the language
explicitely typed?

Make the documenation system explictely typed. 

The clarification needs to happen somewhere along the lines, and I
really think that the world would rather not have it happening at
runtime.

This could clear up a lot of confusion and further python's
effectiveness.

-Hunter.