PEP 233, Python Online Help, Paul Prescod

pep-0233.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+PEP: 233
+Title: Python Online Help
+Version: $Revision$
+Author: paul@prescod.net, paulp@activestate.com (Paul Prescod)
+Status: Draft
+Type: Standards Track
+Created: 11-Dec-2000
+Python-Version: 2.1
+Post-History:
+
+
+Abstract
+
+    This PEP describes a command-line driven online help facility for
+    Python.  The facility should be able to build on existing
+    documentation facilities such as the Python documentation and
+    docstrings.  It should also be extensible for new types and
+    modules.
+
+
+Interactive use:
+
+    Simply typing "help" describes the help function (through repr()
+    overloading).
+
+    "help" can also be used as a function:
+
+    The function takes the following forms of input:
+
+        help( "string" ) -- built-in topic or global
+        help( <ob> ) -- docstring from object or type
+        help( "doc:filename" ) -- filename from Python documentation
+
+    If you ask for a global, it can be a fully-qualified name such as
+    help("xml.dom").
+
+    You can also use the facility from a command-line
+
+    python --help if
+
+    In either situation, the output does paging similar to the "more"
+    command.
+
+
+Implementation
+
+    The help function is implemented in an onlinehelp module which is
+    demand-loaded.
+
+    There should be options for fetching help information from
+    environments other than the command line through the onlinehelp
+    module:
+
+        onlinehelp.gethelp(object_or_string) -> string
+
+    It should also be possible to override the help display function
+    by assigning to onlinehelp.displayhelp(object_or_string).
+
+    The module should be able to extract module information from
+    either the HTML or LaTeX versions of the Python documentation.
+    Links should be accommodated in a "lynx-like" manner.
+
+    Over time, it should also be able to recognize when docstrings are
+    in "special" syntaxes like structured text, HTML and LaTeX and
+    decode them appropriately.
+
+    A prototype implementation is available with the Python source
+    distribution as nondist/sandbox/doctools/onlinehelp.py.
+
+
+Built-in Topics
+
+    help( "intro" )  - What is Python? Read this first!
+    help( "keywords" )  - What are the keywords?
+    help( "syntax" )  - What is the overall syntax?
+    help( "operators" )  - What operators are available?
+    help( "builtins" )  - What functions, types, etc. are built-in?
+    help( "modules" )  - What modules are in the standard library?
+    help( "copyright" )  - Who owns Python?
+    help( "moreinfo" )  - Where is there more information?
+    help( "changes" )  - What changed in Python 2.0?
+    help( "extensions" )  - What extensions are installed?
+    help( "faq" )  - What questions are frequently asked?
+    help( "ack" )  - Who has done work on Python lately?
+
+
+Security Issues
+
+    This module will attempt to import modules with the same names as
+    requested topics.  Don't use the modules if you are not confident
+    that everything in your PYTHONPATH is from a trusted source.
+
+
+
+Local Variables:
+mode: indented-text
+indent-tabs-mode: nil
+End: