[ python-Feature Requests-1572210 ] help(x) for keywords too

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Feature Requests item #1572210, was opened at 2006-10-06 10:06
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by rhettinger
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Category: Python Library
Group: Python 2.6
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Jim Jewett (jimjjewett)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: help(x) for keywords too

Initial Comment:
At the interactive prompt, help(object) is very useful.

It would be nice if it also worked on keywords.

"""
>>> help(object)
Help on class object in module __builtin__:

class object
 |  The most base type
"""

vs 

"""
>>> help(with)
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
"""

At the moment, the workaround is to open the 
documentation, pick a document that doesn't seem quite 
right (language reference?), go to the index, and look 
for the keyword.


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>Comment By: Raymond Hettinger (rhettinger)
Date: 2006-11-27 13:13

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Ideally, if help() doesn't find local HTML files, it should be smart
enough to look on doc.python.org.    People who need help are not usually
in a position to build their own help files.

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Comment By: Jim Jewett (jimjjewett)
Date: 2006-11-21 10:41

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1600491 contains a doc patch, which is basically just adding Tom Heller's
advice on *how* to build to the error message.

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Comment By: Thomas Heller (theller)
Date: 2006-10-06 14:25

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> Is this likely to be a windows build issue?

No.  pydoc cannot use the .chm file.  Either you should
download the HTML files yourself, or you can compile the
.chm file in a windows command shell (note that the
decompilation runs in the background, and has no user
interface):

C:\Python24\Doc>hh -decompile . Python24.chm

C:\Python24\Doc>dir *.chm
 Datenträger in Laufwerk C: ist ...
 Volumeseriennummer: ...

 Verzeichnis von C:\Python24\Doc

06.10.2006  21:23             3.732 about.html
06.10.2006  21:23             8.689 acks.html
06.10.2006  21:23             4.445 index.html
06.10.2006  21:23            35.525 modindex.html
               4 Datei(en)         52.391 Bytes
               0 Verzeichnis(se),  8.506.798.080 Bytes frei

C:\Python24\Doc>

The other HTML files are created in subdirectories, and
help("if") now works.

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Comment By: Jim Jewett (jimjjewett)
Date: 2006-10-06 11:26

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No, it doesn't -- but putting the keyword in quotes does at 
least change the error message to saying that topic and 
keyword documentation is not available because the Python 
HTML documentation files could not be found.  

I'm using Windows XP, the 2.4 and 2.5 binaries from 
python.org, if I changed anything it was just the install 
directory to be Python2.5 (or 2.4 for 2.4))

The documentation (as a chm file) is found by the F1 key.  
Is this likely to be a windows build issue?


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Comment By: Georg Brandl (gbrandl)
Date: 2006-10-06 10:59

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Doesn't help("if") work for you?

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