Noob: finding my way around the docs...

[Benjamin Kaplan]

On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 5:06 PM, kj <socyl at 987jk.com.invalid> wrote:

>
>
>
> I'm a Python noob, and haven't yet figured out my way around the
> Python documentation.
>
> For example, suppose I learn about some great module foo.bar.baz,
> and when I run the python interpreter and type "import foo.bar.baz",
> lo and behold, it is already installed on our system, which means
> that (knowing that our system is pretty bare-bones as far as python
> goes) most likely foo.bar.baz is part of the standard python
> installation.
>
> So, if I were an experienced Pythonista, how would I go about
> finding the documentation for foo.bar.baz?
>
> This situation happened most recently to me, if we replace foo.bar.baz
> with xml.dom.ext.  It was indeed installed on our system, but I
> could find no mention of it in docs.python.org.
>
> Somehow I have the feeling that there's some major stash of
> documentation that I haven't learned about yet...
>
> FWIW, I'm a Perlhead, and I'm very used (maybe too used) to the
> fact that if the Perl module Foo::Bar::Baz is installed on our
> system, all I need to do to read its full-blown documentation in
> all its glory is to type "perldoc Foo::Bar::Baz" at the command
> line.  Is there anything like this in Python?
>
> TIA!
>
> kj
> --
> NOTE: In my address everything before the first period is backwards;
> and the last period, and everything after it, should be discarded.
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>

To get the docs, just open up the shell and type:

>>> import module
>>> help(module)
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