[Tutor] I Give Up.

[Brian Gustin]

I have had it. I give up.

Python's documentation sucks beyond belief.

all I want to do is parse a *SIMPLE* config file of name = value pairs 
and have python objects named by the name holding the value signified by 
value , and I want it to be able to work *WITHOUT* someone having to 
download and install additional modules, etc, so I looked up ConfigParser

OK, cool, at least it appears capable. however:
*section of code relevant to issue*

from ConfigParser import SafeConfigParser
cfg = SafeConfigParser("/etc/local-config/myconfig.cfg")
mystuff = cfg.items("Parameters",)#kept giving me an exception that 2 
values required
print mystuff


[brian at NixServer python_snips]$ ./pymon.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "./pymon.py", line 20, in ?
     main()
   File "./pymon.py", line 15, in main
     myname = cfg.items("Parameters",)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.3/ConfigParser.py", line 532, in items
     d = self._defaults.copy()
OK.. so items doesnt appear to work (the above is my tenth attempt to 
get it working) So.. "RTSL!" (Read The Source, Luke) - I grokked 
/usr/lib/python2.3/ConfigParser.py" to have a look see at how it does 
what it does, and found additional stuff that isnt documented *AT ALL* 
.. So..


[brian at NixServer python_snips]$ ./pymon.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "./pymon.py", line 20, in ?
     main()
   File "./pymon.py", line 15, in main
     myname = cfg.section()
AttributeError: SafeConfigParser instance has no attribute 'section'

OK Obviously I have no clue how the heck this is all supposed to work, 
and I have wasted 3 hours of development time on this thing (it aint the 
first time I have had issues with Python's Documentation)

Whatever. I give up..

I'll just go write it in Perl. Maybe some day when Python actually has 
well structured documentation with *actual working code examples* I 
might take another look at trying to learn more of it, but at this 
point, time is money, and I can develop the same application in Perl 
(probably would have it *done* by now, it's really simple)..

I just needed to vent - I cannot believe how Python ever managed to get 
*anywhere* with the state of documentation at python.org

If you want an example of what I would call quality online documentation 
- need look no further than php.net (or dev.mysql.com) .. or even 
cpan.org (or heck, just run perldoc in commandline.. ) I tried pydoc.. 
it just doesnt cut the mustard..

OK..
/end rant

Now can someone explan how exactly (preferrably with an actual real 
world example) that I can read a configuration file in , say 
/etc/local-config/myconfig.cfg  into my python script running in 
/usr/bin/localscripts , and able to actually use the names as variables 
(objects) with the configured values assigned to them?

This drove me nuts the past couple hours, and truthfully, as much as I 
like python (I really  LIKE python) .. the documentation sucks *SO* bad, 
I just cannot justify attempting to learn more and use it for more 
projects because of situations like this that do nothing but waste my time.