Where is the help function defined?

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Mon Jun 21 14:01:42 EDT 2010


On 6/21/2010 1:17 PM, Peng Yu wrote:
> help(help) gives me the following explanation.
>
> ##################
> Help on _Helper in module site object:
>
> class _Helper(__builtin__.object)
>   |  Define the built-in 'help'.

See 'built-in'?


>   |  This is a wrapper around pydoc.help (with a twist).
>   |
>   |  Methods defined here:
>   |
>   |  __call__(self, *args, **kwds)
>   |
>   |  __repr__(self)
>   |
>   |
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>   |  Data descriptors defined here:
>   |
>   |  __dict__
>   |      dictionary for instance variables (if defined)
>   |
>   |  __weakref__
>   |      list of weak references to the object (if defined)
> ###################
>
> I then looked at pydoc site.

Which is?

Lib Ref 2. Built-in Functions has entry

help([object])
Invoke the built-in help system. (This function is intended for 
interactive use.) If no argument is given, the interactive help system 
starts on the interpreter console. If the argument is a string, then the 
string is looked up as the name of a module, function, class, method, 
keyword, or documentation topic, and a help page is printed on the 
console. If the argument is any other kind of object, a help page on the 
object is generated.

This function is added to the built-in namespace by the site module.

Peruse the first 6 chapers of the Library Reference so you are familiar 
with what is there. I use them pretty regularly.

Terry Jan Reedy





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