[Pythonmac-SIG] Re: Now this is pretty cool...

[Dean & Yang Draayer]

> I think I would prefer it if IDE provided a hook into this, or if
> someone donated an IDE script for this (how about something that 
looks
> up help on the current selection, and if there is no selection shows 
a
> dialog box in which you can type the thing you want to look up?).

I came up with the following script that seems to work well in the 
Scripts menu of Python IDE.

#=============================================
# 'Online Help....py'
#
#   Provides access to the on-line help
#   generated by the pydoc module.
#
#   This script is intended for use in the
#   Python IDE Scripts menu (MacPython only).
#=============================================

if sys.platform != 'mac':
    sys.exit("This script works only in MacPython.")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    from EasyDialogs import AskString
    from pydoc import Helper
    import sys

    helper = Helper(sys.stdin, sys.stdout)
    topic = AskString('Help topic:', '')
    if topic != None:   # user didn't cancel
        if topic == '':
            helper.intro()
        else:
            helper.help(topic)

#=== end 'Online Help....py' ===


It doesn't do the 'current selection' trick - not yet anyway.  I'll 
look into adding this feature.  If this works to everyone's 
satisfaction, it might be a good idea to incorporate this in the Help 
menu instead of the Scripts menu.

One minor annoyance: when the AskString dialog comes up, the cursor 
remains a watch cursor.  It really should revert to an arrow cursor.

Cheers,
Dean Draayer
draayer@surfglobal.net