for item in (pydoc, docs, lib): question_regarding(item)

[Michael Hudson]

gerson.kurz at t-online.de (Gerson Kurz) writes:

[snip pydoc woes, as I don't know much about that]

> 2) There are some minor things I would like to see changed in the
> official python documentation. e.g., the example in section "6.4 stat
> -- Interpreting stat() results" uses the line
> 
> pathname = '%s/%s' % (dir, f)
> 
> which IMHO should read
> 
> pathname = os.path.join(dir, f)
> 
> I think that IF you at last give in and RTFM, it should at least
> silently guide you to the python-way of doing things. Now, where to
> submit things like these?

I don't know which version of the docs you were looking at, but the
ones at

    http://python.sourceforge.net/devel-docs/lib/lib.html

have, at the bottom of every page, a line:

    See About this document... for information on suggesting changes.

Clicking the link tells you to email python-docs at python.org or submit
bugs to sourceforge (or patches, I guess, if you speak TeX).

> And saving the best for last:
> 
> 3) Is there something like a TODO-list for "The Python Standard
> Library"?

Don't think so.

> And how to contribute?

    http://www.python.org/patches/

> I'm thinking of tiny things like a hexdump function

What do you mean here?  I suspect it probably already exists, though
perhaps not with the most obvious name...

> or administrative functions (like "granting/denying a user access to
> a file on NT") and things like that. [If you speak out regarding "OS
> dependancy", remember "sunau" and those IRIX modules].

Use win32all, surely?  The IRIX and sunau modules date from a time
lost in the mists of creation, and I don't think they can be used as
an excuse to wedge more platform dependence into the stdlib.

> I'd also like to add bigger things like a stripped down generic
>SMTP/POP3 server.

There's smtpd, already -- maybe you could look at that and improve it
if it doesn't match your needs.  A pop3d sounds like a good idea to
me, at least.

> I know we had threads on this before and they never got anywhere,
> but hey this time it could all be totally different :)

Did we?  Must have killed them...

Cheers,
M.

-- 
  Ability to type on a computer terminal is no guarantee of sanity,
  intelligence, or common sense. 
                                 -- Gene Spafford's Axiom #2 of Usenet