[SciPy-user] Re: [SciPy-dev] MCMC, Kalman Filtering, AI for SciPy?

[Travis Oliphant]

Fernando Perez wrote:

> Travis Oliphant schrieb:
>
>>> I don't think the library names should be mercilessly duplicated 
>>> everywhere, but something like this can really help in a few 
>>> places.  Obviously, a good, searchable, cross-referenced 
>>> documentation is a key part of the soultion to this problem, as you 
>>> mention.
>>
>>
>>
>> As far as searching goes.  scipy.info started something like this a 
>> while back.  The functionality was lost a bit when the delayed import 
>> mechanism was used (but it could be modified to work).
>> The idea was that scipy.info(<string>) would start looking for 
>> <string> in all the documentation it could find and then would print 
>> what it found.   It still works on things that are in the namespace 
>> of scipy but not subpackages.
>>
>> try
>>
>> scipy.info("fft")
>>
>> for example
>>
>> It is rudimentary, but shows an idea that could be pursued.
>
>
> Very nice, and I think a useful tool to have.  Note however that 
> somehow scipy messes up the plain python help system:
>
> planck[python]> python
> Python 2.3.3 (#1, May  7 2004, 10:31:40)
> [GCC 3.3.3 20040412 (Red Hat Linux 3.3.3-7)] on linux2
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
> >>> import scipy
> >>> help('for')
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site.py", line 309, in __call__
>     return pydoc.help(*args, **kwds)
>   File "scipy_base/ppimport.py", line 381, in _scipy_pydoc_help_call
>   File "scipy_base/ppimport.py", line 366, in _ppresolve_ignore_failure
>   File "scipy_base/ppimport.py", line 335, in ppresolve
>   File "scipy_base/ppimport.py", line 340, in ppresolve
>   File "scipy_base/ppimport.py", line 202, in ppimport
>   File "scipy_base/ppimport.py", line 273, in _ppimport_importer
> ImportError: No module named for
>
This is the delayed import mechanism again (not info).   The fancyness 
hurts some tools that rely on introspection.  I'm not sure if the 
problem can be resolved as I very much want the delayed import 
functionality.


>
> Well, I keep hearing about .chm files, so I went ahead and did a bit 
> of testing on this front.  It turns out that in my yum config, gnochm 
> is available as a one-step install for a CHM gnome-based reader for 
> linux.  I then googled for a second and found this:
>
> http://home.comcast.net/~tim.one/
>
> where a Python23.chm file is available with all the docs for python 
> 2.3.  I opened that with gnochm andit worked really very well, with 
> searching and good navigation.

I rather like the .chm file concept myself, and there are readers on 
multiple platforms, so it's not a bad way to go.

So, let's add some help functionality that opens a .chm file in a new 
window (if display is available).

-Travis