Bitching about the documentation...

[skip at pobox.com]

    >> Note that the updated version of this is at: http://wiki.python.org/
    >> moin/HowTo/Sorting

    rurpy> http://wiki.python.org/...
    rurpy> Hmmm, lets see, how about Libraries?
    rurpy> Nope, don't see anything that looks like it might be about sort
    rurpy> there...
    rurpy> How about Documentation?
    rurpy> Nope
    rurpy> Code?
    rurpy> Hmm, "sort lists of dicts" doesn't sound like it...
    rurpy> I see there a search box, let's try that for "sort"
    rurpy> WTF?, these all look like old maillist archives...
    rurpy> Maybe I should Goole python.org  What was the google syntax to
    rurpy> limit the search to one site?  I forgot.
    rurpy> Aww screw it.  

    rurpy> Wikis suck.  Update the damn docs.

Gee, I wonder if I typed "sort" into the search box on the wiki it might
turn up something useful?  Well, what do you know?

    2 results of about 4571 pages. (0.19 seconds)

    1. HowTo/Sorting
    2. SortingListsOfDictionaries

Is it as good as Google ("site:wiki.python.org sort")?  Unlikely, but it
works fairly well.  Granted, wikis are a different way of organizing content
than static documentation with their nicely organized chapters, sections and
indexes, but most of us around here are software engineer types, not tech
writers, and since we're not paid to do any of this, we get to do anything
we want.  Most of us choose not to write documentation in our spare time.
Go figure.  If documentation's your thing, be my guest.  Write new
documentation, submit patches for existing documentation, rewrite it in
Word.  I don't care. Do whatever floats your boat.  Just don't show up and
bitch about the documentation if you're not willing to help.

Oh, did I mention that there's an Edit link at the top of almost every page
on the wiki and that creating new pages is pretty simple?  (Try searching
the wiki for "WikiCourse".)  Contributing new content to the existing more
static documentation isn't all that hard either.

If you prefer the latest documentation, bookmark this page:

    http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/index.html

That's updated every few months, more frequently as new releases approach.

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