[Python-Dev] www.python.org/doc and docs.python.org hotfixed

[Doug Hellmann]

On Oct 2, 2008, at 8:17 AM, Georg Brandl wrote:

> Doug Hellmann schrieb:
>
>>> Not a single one, no. The URLs *all* changed. There is not a single
>>> one that's the same. We may be able to do a single rewrite rule for
>>> most of the module-*.html URLs, but everything else -- and there is
>>> quite a lot of 'else' in the 2.5-and-earlier docs -- needs a better
>>> mapping. Feel free to send me that mapping :-)
>>
>> Perhaps it has already been suggested and rejected for some reason,  
>> but
>> we could include the major/minor version numbers in the URLs.  That
>> would make it easier to rewrite old URLs, and I assume there will  
>> be 2.x
>> and 3.x documentation available online for some period of time?
>>
>> docs.python.org/lib/* could redirect to docs.python.org/2.5/lib/*
>
> That would be possible, but not sensible IMO -- it doesn't make people
> update their links, instead keeps links to outdated documentation.

The documentation isn't outdated if you're still running Python 2.5,  
as a lot of people will be.  Not everyone gets to upgrade right away  
when there's a new release.  For example, the product we build at work  
depends on 2.5 and we don't have time in our schedule to upgrade right  
away.  It may be several months before we do.

>> docs.pyhton.org/ (note no *) could redirect to docs.python.org/2.6/  
>> and
>> include a link to docs.python.org/3.0/
>
> We already have archived versioned docs at http://www.python.org/doc/X.Y 
> .

Great, so we can just redirect the old links over there.  If you can  
make them point to the correct form of the new docs, that would be  
even better, but at least sending them to the old docs means they  
point to *something* useful.

>> That way all of the old references (in Google and bookmarks) would  
>> still
>> work.
>>
>> Perhaps we should restore the old version of the files until this is
>> resolved?  Being redirected to the top landing page is a little
>> disconcerting if you come to the site through a search engine and  
>> aren't
>> familiar with the organization of the manual.  For example, I went to
>> look for the documentation on how slots work, and ended up at the  
>> top of
>> the reference manual.  The local search didn't work (no results),
>> "slots" isn't in the index, and google still has the old URL.
>
> __slots__ is in the index (with the underscores). The local search  
> shows me
> __slots__ as the first result when I search for "__slots__" or  
> "slots".

OK, searching for "slots" at http://docs.python.org found several  
results this time.  I don't know why it would have given me no results  
the last time, but I found what I needed.

Doug