killing a script

[Steven D'Aprano]

Cameron Simpson wrote:

> On 10Sep2011 11:25, Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info>
> wrote:
> | Cameron Simpson wrote:
> | > My copy of the 2.7 docs says:
> | >   This is implemented by calling the Standard C function system(), and
> | >   has the same limitations.
> | > and sure enough, "man 3 system" says:
> | 
> | I don't consider having to look up documentation for a function in a
> | completely different language (in this case, C) as "documented behaviour
> | of os.system".
> 
> You're kidding, surely? 

No, I meant exactly what I said, but I suspect that you misunderstood what I
said. I blame myself for not making myself more clear, sorry.


> A wrapper function for a system supplied function 
> should recite everything about the wrapped function's behaviour (including
> the system dependent stuff) in the wrapper doco?

Heavens no, I certainly don't mean that. That would be silly. 

What I mean is that in the context of discussing Python library
functions, "documented behaviour" refers to what the Python docs state,
namely the function docstring and the docs at http://docs.python.org/ (or
the 3.x version). Third-party documentation doesn't count: not blogs,
not "some guy sent me an email", and not documentation for other tools
either.

So if you describe a feature of os.system as "documented", I'm going to
understand that as *Python* documentation. Hence my question about where it
is documented. If we're discussing external documentation, we should say so
up front: not all Python users are using CPython, and not all Python coders
know C and have access to the Linux man pages.


-- 
Steven