[Numpy-discussion] #734: interactive docstring search (lookfor)

[Pauli Virtanen]

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Steven H. Rogers wrote:
> There's definitely a place for docsearch from the shell.  There's
> opportunity for context sensitive search that Sphinx generated docs
> couldn't easily duplicate.

I think this is a good idea: full-namespace docstring search à la Matlab
lookfor. I wrote a quick implementation for numpy here:
http://scipy.org/scipy/numpy/ticket/734

Example of use:
>>> import numpy as np
>>> np.lookfor("eigenvalue hermitean")
Search results for 'eigenvalue hermitean'
- -----------------------------------------
numpy.linalg.eigvalsh
    Compute the eigenvalues of a Hermitean or real symmetric matrix.
numpy.linalg.eigh
    Compute eigenvalues for a Hermitian or real symmetric matrix.
numpy.linalg.eigvals
    Compute the eigenvalues of a general matrix.
>>> np.lookfor("least squares", "scipy")
Search results for 'least squares'
- ----------------------------------
scipy.polyfit
    Least squares polynomial fit.
scipy.linalg.lstsq
    Compute least-squares solution to equation :m:`a x = b`
scipy.linalg.pinv
    Compute the (Moore-Penrose) pseudo-inverse of a matrix.
scipy.optimize.leastsq
    Minimize the sum of squares of a set of equations.
scipy.optimize.fmin_slsqp
    Minimize a function using Sequential Least SQuares Programming
... more results, shown in a pager ...


- --
Pauli Virtanen
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