Error in optparse documentation

[John Machin]

On May 28, 7:54 am, Shatadal <gshata... at rediffmail.com> wrote:
> In the python documentation section 14.3.2.6 (http://docs.python.org/
> lib/optparse-generating-help.html) in the last line it is written
>
> "options that have a default value can include %default in the help
> string--optparse will replace it with str() of the option's default
> value. If an option has no default value (or the default value is
> None), %default expands to none."
>
> However this is true only for python 2.4 and newer and not for older
> versions. Though the documentation for optparse (section 14.3,http://docs.python.org/lib/module-optparse.html) says that the module
> is new for python 2.3, in this version a help string (default value =
> intermediate) e.g.
>
> help="interaction mode: novice, intermediate, or expert [default:
> %default]"
>
> prints
>
> interaction mode: novice, intermediate, or expert [default: %default]
>
> and not:
>
> interaction mode: novice, intermediate, or expert [default:
> intermediate]
>
> Only in python 2.4 and newer do you see the help string print as
>
> interaction mode: novice, intermediate, or expert [default:
> intermediate]
>
> I think the documentation should be modified so that it is made clear
> that %default in the help string behaves as is claimed only in version
> 2.4 and higher.

Don't think, act; submit a doc patch: """
Please add the text "New in version 2.4." to the end of the last
bullet point in [the section that you quoted].
"""
and move on.

If you are maintaining software that must work on an older version of
Python, you need to read the docs for that version, as well as the
current docs -- you can't [reasonably] expect a birth certificate
attached to each paragraph :-)