why does "help(import)" not work?

[Brian Quinlan]

Hi Robert,

help() is just a regular function that must be called with correct  
Python syntax and the import keyword is not allowed in an argument list.

The correct syntax is:
help('import')

Cheers,
Brian

On 6 Nov 2009, at 20:56, Robert P. J. Day wrote:

>
>  i'm sure there's a painfully obvious answer to this, but is there a
> reason i can't do:
>
>>>> help(import)
>  File "<stdin>", line 1
>    help(import)
>              ^
> SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>>>
>
>  on the other hand, i can certainly go into "help()" and type
> "import" to get that help.  it seems counter-intuitive to have the
> first variation fail but the second succeed.
>
>  what is the rule for this in python3?
>
> rday
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> Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario,  
> CANADA
>
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