[PYTHON DOC-SIG] Documentation enhancements

[Guido van Rossum]

> > I've found a publisher who's somewhat interested in producing a
> > printed version of the Python docs, though nothing is certain yet.  In
> > the knowledge that there may be a printed version of the 1.5 docs,
> > what changes should be made?  
> 
> I for one would want to make sure that we don't rush into something like
> this without making sure that the product is high-quality.  I agree with
> ,I think it was you, Andrew, that the docs need a typesetting makeover at
> the very least.  I also feel that the tutorial badly needs an overhaul --
> right now most of the good stuff is in "and then we added ..." sections,
> which gives the wrong impression.  I realize that the author of the
> tutorial (GvR) is too busy, but I do think it's an important and needed
> change...

Yes, and yes... :-(

> BTW: the reason I think it's important to do a good job is that I think
> this sort of product has a much bigger PR effect than one might think --
> and first impressions count a lot.

Hmm, I'm not sure.  We don't have a marketing organization like
O'Reilly, and we'll probably mostly sell to people who already like
Python but don't have the resources to print the docs themselves.
So I don't think it will be a big PR item.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

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