Tried Ruby (or, "what Python *really* needs" or "perldoc!")

[Paul Boddie]

msoulier wrote:
>
> But, if Python would match Perl for docs available on the command-line,
> then I'd have it all at my fingertips. I simply don't understand why
> this is not being done. When I'm coding in C, I use the manpages on the
> remote host so that I know the docs are correct for my target. Why
> can't I do that in Python?

What about pydoc?

% pydoc os

[Clear screen]

Help on module os:

NAME
    os - OS routines for Mac, DOS, NT, or Posix depending on what
system we're on.

FILE
    /usr/lib/python2.4/os.py

MODULE DOCS
    http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-os.html

DESCRIPTION

[...]

> It's yet another thing that my Perl-using coworkers point out as a Python weakness.

In my experience, Perl-using coworkers tend to dredge up all sorts of
"weaknesses", although many of them are no more than cheap shots: the
name, whitespace, and so on. Sure, Python's documentation system could
be better, but let's consider the tools we already have first.

Paul