[Python-Dev] query: docstring formatting in python distutils code

[Michael Foord]

On 07/07/2010 17:06, Shashwat Anand wrote:
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 9:24 PM, C. Titus Brown <ctb at msu.edu 
> <mailto:ctb at msu.edu>> wrote:
>
>     Hi all,
>
>     over on the fellowship o' the packaging mailing list, one of our
>     GSoC students
>     (merwok) asked about how much formatting info should go into
>     Python stdlib
>     docstrings.  Right now the stdlib docstrings are primarily text,
>     AFAIK; but
>     with the switch to Sphinx for the official Python docs, should we
>     permit
>     ReST-general and/or Sphinx-specific markup in docstrings?
>
>     Hmm, I don't actually see that the stdlib docstrings are imported
>     into the
>     Python documentation anywhere, so maybe the use of Sphinx isn't that
>     relevant.  But how about ReST in general?
>
>
> So will we be able to use .__docs__ within python interpretor, which 
> is quite handy feature.
> >>> print(os.getcwd.__doc__)
> getcwd() -> path
>
> Return a string representing the current working directory.
> Also some python interpretors like bpython uses it ; a snapshot here - 
>  http://cl.ly/c5bb3be4a01d9d44732f
> So will it be ok to break them ?

Using ReST won't *break* these tools, but may make the output less 
readable.

I would say that the major use of docstrings is for interactive help - 
so interactive readability should be *the most important* (but perhaps 
not only) factor when considering how to format standard library docstrings.

Michael

>
>     See
>
>     http://sphinx.pocoo.org/markup/index.html
>
>     for sphinx-specific markup constructs.
>
>     thanks,
>     --titus
>     --
>     C. Titus Brown, ctb at msu.edu <mailto:ctb at msu.edu>
>
>
>
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