[Tutor] Python Docs (Was: Reformatting phone number)

[Jerry Hill]

On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 12:01 PM, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2008/8/21 Kent Johnson <kent37 at tds.net>:
>> Chapters 2 and 3 of the library reference are highly recommended.
>> http://docs.python.org/lib/lib.html
>
> Let's start from there. I need the startswith() function, but I do not
> know it's name. I search for "strings" and find this:
> 4. String Services
>    * 4.1 string -- Common string operations
>          o 4.1.3 String functions

You went too far.  Look at 3.6 (Sequence types) and 3.6.1 (String
Methods).  Those document operations that work on all types of
sequences and the methods of the string type.  That's 99% of what
you'll need to know about python strings.  Kent was pretty specific
about looking at chapter two and three of the library reference.  Why
did you start with chapter four instead?

> But on that page, this is all there is:
> """
> The following functions are available to operate on string and Unicode
> objects. They are not available as string methods.
...
> So Python has only two string functions? That's what it looks like.

There are only two (non-deprecated) functions in the string module.

>
> Thanks, Kent. I will be a nuisance! Is there any place to suggest
> improvements to the docs? I see on the python.org site it is suggested
> to email website bugs to the site admin. Does that go for the docs? I
> am not the one to improve them at this time, as I am unfamiliar with
> the language, but I could report usability issues such as that
> mentioned here.

I believe that doc bugs (and suggestions for improvements) are tracked
on the python bug tracker (http://bugs.python.org/).  If you're going
to submit doc patches, you may want to take a look at
http://docs.python.org/dev/3.0/ which I believe is the beta of the new
documentation layout for python 3.0.  I'm not sure how much the actual
contents have changed from the 2.x docs though.  I notice that the
section on the string module does now refer you back to the methods of
string and sequences in general, which the current docs do not.

-- 
Jerry