dynamically modify help text

[Brian Blais]

On Jun 27, 2010, at 22:37 , Red Forks wrote:

> Read you doc file and set the __doc__ attr of the object you want  
> to change.
>
> On Monday, June 28, 2010, Brian Blais <bblais at bryant.edu> wrote:
>> I know that the help text for an object will give a description of  
>> every method based on the doc string.  Is there a way to add  
>> something to this text, specific to an object, but generated at  
>> run-time?  I have an object that reads a file, and I would like  
>> part of that file to be shown if one does:  help(myobject)
>>
>>

python file:

#=============
class A(object):
     pass

help_text="this is some text"

a=A()
a.__doc__=help_text
#=============






in ipython:

shows up here:

In [5]:a?
Type:           A
Base Class:     <class '__main__.A'>
String Form:    <__main__.A object at 0x13270f0>
Namespace:      Interactive
File:           /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/5.0.0/ 
lib/python2.5/site-packages/IPython/FakeModule.py
Docstring:
     this is some text


but not with the help command:

In [6]:help(a)
Help on A in module __main__ object:

class A(__builtin__.object)
  |  Data descriptors defined here:
  |
  |  __dict__
  |      dictionary for instance variables (if defined)
  |
  |  __weakref__
  |      list of weak references to the object (if defined)


also does the same thing with the regular python prompt.

is there a reason for this?


		thanks,

			Brian Blais

-- 
Brian Blais
bblais at bryant.edu
http://web.bryant.edu/~bblais
http://bblais.blogspot.com/