[Python-Dev] patching pydoc?

[tomer filiba]

i have a problem with pydoc in rpyc. i wanted help(obj), where obj
is a NetProxy object, to work as if it were local.

i followed the code starting from site.help to pydoc.doc, which is the
ultimate function that generates and prints the text. i expected there
would be some function in the middle that prepares the text, and
another that writes it to the pager, but to my disappointment pydoc.doc
does both.

this means i can't transfer the document to my local machine (it's
printed directly to the remote console).

therefore, i would like to split this behavior into two parts:
* render_doc - a function that returns the document text
* doc - a function that calls render_doc and sends it to the pager

this way no existing code breaks (no existing function signatures
are changed) and i gain help on remote objects.
i hope people would be in favor, as it's not such a big change anyway.


is it possible to add to 2.5?

-tomer



this is the code of pydoc, starting at line 1457

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
def doc(thing, title='Python Library Documentation: %s', forceload=0):
    """Display text documentation, given an object or a path to an object."""
    try:
        object, name = resolve(thing, forceload)
        desc = describe(object)
        module = inspect.getmodule(object)
        if name and '.' in name:
            desc += ' in ' + name[:name.rfind('.')]
        elif module and module is not object:
            desc += ' in module ' + module.__name__
        if not (inspect.ismodule(object) or
                inspect.isclass(object) or
                inspect.isroutine(object) or
                isinstance(object, property)):
            # If the passed object is a piece of data or an instance,
            # document its available methods instead of its value.
            object = type(object)
            desc += ' object'
        pager(title % desc + '\n\n' + text.document(object, name))
    except (ImportError, ErrorDuringImport), value:
        print value
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

this is the suggested code

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
 def render_doc(thing, title='Python Library Documentation: %s', forceload=0):
    """generate the text"""
    object, name = resolve(thing, forceload)
    desc = describe(object)
    module = inspect.getmodule(object)
    if name and '.' in name:
        desc += ' in ' + name[:name.rfind('.')]
    elif module and module is not object:
        desc += ' in module ' + module.__name__
    if not (inspect.ismodule(object) or
            inspect.isclass(object) or
            inspect.isroutine(object) or
            isinstance(object, property)):
        # If the passed object is a piece of data or an instance,
        # document its available methods instead of its value.
        object = type(object)
        desc += ' object'
    return title % desc + '\n\n' + text.document(object, name)

def doc(*args, **kwargs):
    """Display text documentation, given an object or a path to an object."""
    try:
        text = render_doc(*args, **kwargs)
        pager(text)
    except (ImportError, ErrorDuringImport), value:
        print value
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>