[SciPy-User] Up-to-date SciPy/NumPy docs

[David Goldsmith]

The problem is, the doc is *not* stable: the NumPy doc is quasi-stable
(there remain 59 "documents" - docstrings, user guide pages, reference
pages, and tutorial pages - in "Being written" status, and 81 in "Needs
editing" status, 19 of which are new since the end of April, i.e., NumPy
continues to be moving target), and the SciPy doc is in a highly
"non-uniform" state, both with respect to quantity and quality, which is
putting it euphemistically IMHO: frankly, if you distribute the SciPy doc
now as it is, you're doing us a better service by telling people that it
*isn't* stable, because saying it *is* in its present state, well, that's
what would make us look unprofessional (again, IMO).  More to the point, the
SciPy doc is presently the focus of an ostensibly community-wide effort to
improve it, so, again ostensibly, presently it is anything but "stable."

There's a lot of work to be done, but, under the philosophy that some doc is
better than no doc at all, the present, dynamic state hasn't stopped us from
releasing it "as is" in the past; indeed, in the past, I believe this has
been the main source of doc improvement: a user posts a doc deficiency to
the list, and that's when it's been taken care of - the "itch-scratching"
approach.  I *think* we all wish that the doc could be completed yesterday,
but the fact of the matter is, until the community steps up and decides that
writing good, clear and complete doc for the stuff that's already there is
*at least* as important as increasing the code base, the state of the doc
will forever be "unstable."

DG

On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 1:42 PM, Pierre Raybaut <pierre.raybaut at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I was planning to update Python(x,y) NumPy and SciPy plugins up to
> (resp.) v1.4.1 and v0.7.2 for a long time now but I was waiting for
> the documentation to be updated as well. But when I'm going to SciPy
> documentation website, there are either still outdated versions of
> NumPy and Scipy documentation available for download.
>
> More precisely, I have the choice to download either outdated .chm
> (the most interesting format for Windows) or .pdf documentations, or
> "too recent" html versions (drafts).
>
> Wouldn't be more logical to propose a stable version of these
> documentations along with current stable releases?
> I'm tired to deliver draft versions with Python(x,y), it simply seems
> unprofessional...
>
> In other words, I would really appreciate .chm docs to be updated to
> the latest stable releases of NumPy and SciPy. I'm sure that all
> Windows scientific Python users will appreciate as well!
>
> Cheers,
> Pierre
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>



-- 
Mathematician: noun, someone who disavows certainty when their uncertainty
set is non-empty, even if that set has measure zero.

Hope: noun, that delusive spirit which escaped Pandora's jar and, with her
lies, prevents mankind from committing a general suicide.  (As interpreted
by Robert Graves)
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