[Python-Dev] Incorporating some of the HOWTOs

[Andrew Kuchling]

I'm becoming more and more convinced that at least some of the HOWTOs
should become part of the Python documentation.  Motivation:

       * A sizable number of the documents are about Python as a
         whole, and therefore would be more naturally part of 
         Python's tree than a separate one.

       * If the documents were in the Python CVS tree, changes would
         be glanced at by the 30-odd people on the python-checkins
         list as opposed to the 8 people on the pyhowto-checkins list

       * They would get increased visibility from being on
         www.python.org/doc/ .

My candidates for addition would be (in decreasing order of
suitability):

* The "What's New" documents, which are like really verbose release
  notes.

* python-dev, which discusses how Python is developed, where to report
  bugs, and that sort of thing.

* "Editor Configuration", which discusses how to configure various
  editors (vi, Emacs, Alpha, CodeWright, jed, ....) for editing Python code.
 
* The Python Advocacy HOWTO, which should be dusted off and updated
  to serve as a sort of advocacy/marketing FAQ.

The rest of the HOWTOs are smaller and more task-specific (rexec,
curses); a case could be made for creating Doc/howto/, but I won't 
argue that case right now.

Reactions (particularly from Fred)?

--amk                                                             (www.amk.ca)
"The future" has arrived but they forgot to update the docs.
    -- R. David Murray, 9 May 2000

(The random number generator strikes again!)