[Python-Dev] Symbol page for Language Reference Manual Index

[Terry Reedy]

Many math books have an index or glossary of symbols connecting the symbols 
used in the text with their meaning in that text.  I have often found these 
useful.

I believe that people learning and using Python would similarly benefit 
from an index to the non-alphabetic symbols (and multi-symbol syntactic 
units) used in Python code.

I am willing to do perhaps half the work needed to produce such in time for 
the 2.5 release.  In particular, I am willing to write a plain text file 
listing symbols (in ascii sort order) and section numbers, in an agreed-on 
format, if the idea is approved and someone else agrees to convert section 
numbers to page links and do the necessary latex/html formatting (with a 
Python script?).

The main formatting decision is between the two formats already used for 
identifiers versus topics.  For example, for the multiple meanings of '()' 
(which is one syntactic unit):

()  (calls) 5.3.4
()  (expressions) 5.2.3
()  (tuple literals) 5.2.3

with each line a link -- see '__dict__' for an example --  or

()
    calls 5.3.4
    expressions 5.2.3
    tuple 5.2.3

with each subline a link -- see arithmetic for an example.

[I just realized that some links need to be within-page rather than to the 
top of the page and that I can cut and paste additional info if I find the 
appropriate regular index entry, such as
http://docs.python.org/ref/parenthesized.html#l2h-342 for 5.2.3.  But I 
will work this sort of thing out with whoever formats.]

Terry Jan Reedy