[Python-Dev] [isssue 2001] Pydoc enhancement patch questions

[Ron Adam]

On 07/24/2010 05:37 AM, Nick Coghlan wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 10:05 AM, Ron Adam<rrr at ronadam.com>  wrote:
>>> I am not sure I like the fact that the browser is started automatically.
>>> Please bring this up on python-dev.  This may be an opportunity to
>>> rethink pydoc command line switches.  For example, -p and -g are
>>> currently exclusive, but it would make sense for -g to start server on
>>> the port specified by -p.
>>
>> So are any thoughts on starting the web browser automatically, and on how
>> the -g and -p command line switches work?
>
> My suggestion:
>
> - leave the "-g" option alone (including the tk gui), but make sure
> other options still work when tk is unavailable

I was hoping it would be ok to drop the tk gui in pydoc.  Keeping it 
requires rewriting the tk gui interface to use the new server because the 
server code and the gui code are not cleanly separate.  I can do this if 
it's really wanted. (Nothing against tKinter, I use it for my own gui apps.)

Or are you suggesting having pydoc work either with the tk gui behavior 
without any of the new features, or with the new features without the tk 
gui, depending on how it's started?  I'd prefer not to do this because it 
would duplicate the server code and possibly other functions to produce 
some of the web page outputs.  That would make pydoc.py both larger and 
harder to maintain. It may also make enhancing pydoc further more difficult 
as well.

The current patch without the tk gui definitely makes things easier to 
maintain IMHO.

Are there any compelling reasons for keeping the tk gui?



BTW, the synopsis search feature is currently broken in python 3.2.  See 
issue:  http://bugs.python.org/issue9319

Once that is fixed, you can then play around with the search features with 
and without this patch and see how they compare.


> - add a "-b" option to start the server and open the webbrowser automatically
> - allow "-p" to be combined with either "-b" or "-g" to specify where
> the server should run (or is running)

I also agree the "-p" option should work with the "-b" and/or "-g".

Using "-b" instead of reusing "-g" for browser only, makes sense to me.

Depending on weather or not the tk gui is kept, the "-g" option can either 
open the tk gui or give a message to use the "-b" option instead.


Ron