[Python-ideas] Cleaner separation of help() and interactive help.

[Ronald Oussoren]

On 7 Feb, 2011, at 23:34, Greg Ewing wrote:

> Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> 
>> Do you have a reliable source for that claim about "most" people that is relevant to Python coders? We're not all using Microsoft VisualStudio :)
> 
> I'm not talking about IDEs. I'm talking about things like the
> Terminal in MacOSX, the cmd window in Windows, and equivalent
> things in the Linux and X11 worlds. It's very rare nowadays
> for anyone to be using a command-line style interface in
> anything that doesn't have scroll bars attached to it.

Yes, but that doesn't mean I want help(something) to dump loads of text in my terminal window and require me to scoll back in the terminal to see the bit I want.

> 
>> What you're describing *is* a pager.
> 
> Yes, of course, but it's one better matched to the characteristics
> of the environment I usually find myself working in nowadays.
> Using a pager designed for glass ttys in a Terminal window is
> actually *worse* in many ways than just dumping the text out
> with no pager at all.

I don't agree. I'm quite happy with help in its current form.

Ronald