[Python-Dev] Py2.3.1

[Tim Peters]

[Tim]
>> Another project we ran out of time for was building the Windows HTML
>> docs into a .chm file; there's a quite capable script for doing that
>> in
>>
>>     Doc/tools/prechm.py
>>
>> but it hasn't been updated since the last time it worked.

[Thomas Heller]
> This script works with the current docs as well.  But including it in
> the windows installer instead of the 1250 html pages will raise the
> size by ~200 kB (probably the full text index),

The size of what?  The installer .exe?  I'm not sure anyone would notice,
given how large it is already.  We certainly lose more than 200KB after
installation to the file-padding and directory-entry burdens of spreading
the docs over 1000+ separate files.

> but worse, pydoc expects the normal html pages.

A fully indexed .chm file is much better for searching than pydoc.  Sounds
like a case of lose-a-little, gain-a-lot.

> hh.exe can decompile the chm file, but is it a good idea to do this
> during (or after) installation?

If there's a nice searchable .chm file, I wouldn't want a thousand separate
HTML files in addition.