[Python-ideas] Improving Pydoc

[Ron Adam]

Improving pydoc has been suggested before by me and others.  I've been working 
on a version that is probably 80% done and would like to get feed back at this 
point to determine if I'm approaching this in the best way.

Basically pydoc.py consists of over 2,000 lines of python code and is not well 
organized inside which means (my thoughts) it will pretty much stay the way it 
is and not be as useful as it could be.

Currently pydoc.py has the following uses.

     * It is imported and used as pythons console help function.
     * It can be used to generate help text files.
     * It can open a tkinter search index and from that launch a web server and 
a browser to veiw a html help page.
     * It can be used to generate static html help files.


It looks (to me) like splitting it into two modules would be good.  One module 
for just the text help and introspection functions, and the other for the html 
server and html output stuff.


1. pyhelp.py - Pythons help function from inside the console, and running it 
directly would open an interactive text help session.

2. _pydoc.py - Python html help browser.  This starts an html server and opens a 
web page with a modules/package index.  The html page headers would contain the 
current Python version info and the following inputs fields.

     * get field - directly bring up help on an object/module/or package.
     * Search field - returns a search results index.
     * Modules button - modules index page
     * Keywords button - keywords index page
     * Help button - pydoc Help instructions, version, and credits info.

Note: The leading underscore "_pydoc.py" is to keep it from clashing with the 
current pydoc version.  It probably should be something else.


An additional feature is clicking on a filename opens up a numbered source 
listing. Which is nice for source code browsing and for referencing specific 
lines of code in python list discussions. ;-)

The colors, fonts and general appearance can be changed by editing the style 
sheet.  The output is readable as plain (outline form) text if the style sheet 
is ignored by the browser.

_pydoc.py imports pyhelp and uses it to do the introspection work and extends 
classes in pyhelp to produce html output.  I've tried to make pyhelp.py useful 
in a general way so that it can more easily be used as a base that other output 
formats can be built from. That's something that can't be done presently.

These improvements to pydoc mean you can browse pythons library dynamically 
without ever leaving the web browser. Currently you switch back and forth 
between the browser and a tkinter index window.  Something I found to be 
annoying enough to discourage me from using pydoc.


The version I'm working on is split up into eight python files, each addressing 
a particular function of pydoc. That was to help me organize things better. 
These will be recombined into fewer files.  Some parts of it could be moved to 
other modules if they seem more generally useful.  For example, the console text 
pager could be used in many other console applications.

Things that still need to be done are adding the object resolution order output 
back in.  And adding inter-page html links back in.  And a few other things I 
just haven't gotten to yet.  I got a bit burned out on this project a while 
back, and then moved to a new house.. etc.. etc..  But I'm starting to have more 
time, and with the current discussion s turning on to refining pythons library 
this seems like it would be a useful tool in that effort.

Any comments on this general approach?  Any suggestions, questions, or comments?

I'll post a link to the zipped files in the next day or two and announce it 
here. I need to look into a glitch on my computer first that's probably a 
windows path/name problem. I don't think it's anything that needs to be fixed in 
the files but I want to be sure.

Cheers,
    Ron Adam