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

[Shashwat Anand]

On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 9:39 PM, Michael Foord <fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk>wrote:

>  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> 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 -  h
> ttp://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.
>

Oops. Sorry for the wrong choice of word. I meant the 'output will be less
readable', text are perhaps easier to read than ReST, thats what I meant.

>
> 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
>>
>>
>
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