Fixed a lot of the smaller nits identified in Guido's comments.

Filled in some of the "blank" areas, and added another large blank
area for a LaTeX primer.  (Still a lot to be done.)
This commit is contained in:
Fred Drake 1999-03-29 14:55:55 +00:00
parent 825df2a14d
commit 2c4e009b66

View File

@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ This document describes the document classes and special markup used
in the Python documentation. Authors may use this guide, in
conjunction with the template files provided with the
distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
[Notes and questions in brackets, like this, are notes to myself while
developing this document.]
\end{abstract}
\tableofcontents
@ -53,9 +56,22 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
from the community have proved useful during the time I've been
involved in maintaining the documentation.
[Who is this document for?]
This document is aimed at authors and potential authors of
documentation for Python. Among this group, it is aimed primarily
at people contributing to the standard documentation and developing
additional documents using the same tools as the standard
documents. This guide will be less useful for authors using the
Python documentation tools for topics other than Python, and less
useful still for authors not using the tools at all.
[What does it cover?]
The material in this guide is intended to assist authors using the
Python documentation tools. It includes information on the source
distribution of the standard documentation, a discussion of the
Python document classes, reference material on the markup defined in
the document classes, a list of the tools need for processing
documents, and reference material on the tools provided with the
documentation resources. At the end, there is also a section
discussing future directions for the Python documentation.
\section{Directory Structure}
@ -69,7 +85,7 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
The documentation sources are usually placed within the Python
source distribution as the top-level subdirectory \file{Doc/}, but
is independent of the Python source distribution.
are independent of the Python source distribution.
The \file{Doc/} directory contains a few files and several
subdirectories. The files are mostly self-explanatory, including a
@ -83,12 +99,12 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
three-character names.
\term{Format-Specific Output}
Most output formats have a directory provided which contains a
Most output formats have a directory which contains a
\file{Makefile} which controls the generation of that format
and provides storage for the formatted documents. The only
variation within this category is the Portable Document Format
(PDF) and PostScript versions are placed in the directories
\file{paper-a4/} and \file{paper-letter/}.
variations within this category are the Portable Document
Format (PDF) and PostScript versions are placed in the
directories \file{paper-a4/} and \file{paper-letter/}.
\term{Supplemental Files}
Some additional directories are used to store supplemental
@ -99,6 +115,13 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
the formatting processes.
\end{definitions}
\section{\LaTeX{} Syntax Primer \label{latex-primer}}
[This section will discuss what the markup looks like, and explain
the difference between an environment and a macro.]
\section{Document Classes}
Two \LaTeX{} document classes are defined specifically for use with
@ -129,6 +152,10 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
\section{Python-specific Markup}
The Python document classes define a lot of new environments and
macros. This section contains the reference material for these
facilities.
\subsection{Information Units \label{info-units}}
Most of the environments should be described here: \env{excdesc},
@ -185,9 +212,9 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
Access to the SPAM facility}
\declaremodule{extension}{spam}
\platform{SomeOS}
\modulesynopsis{Access to the SPAM facility of SomeOS.}
\moduleauthor{John Doe}{john.doe@frobnication.org}
\platform{Unix}
\modulesynopsis{Access to the SPAM facility of Unix.}
\moduleauthor{Jane Doe}{jane.doe@frobnitz.org}
\end{verbatim}
\begin{macrodesc}{declaremodule}{{[}\var{key}{]}\{\var{type}\}\{\var{name}\}}
@ -195,9 +222,9 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
extension), and the module name. An optional parameter should be
given as the basis for the module's ``key'' used for linking to or
referencing the section. The ``key'' should only be given if the
module's name contains underscores, and should be the name with the
underscore's stripped. This should be the first thing after the
\macro{section} used to introduce the module.
module's name contains any underscores, and should be the name
with the underscores stripped. This should be the first thing
after the \macro{section} used to introduce the module.
\end{macrodesc}
\begin{macrodesc}{platform}{\{\var{specifier}\}}
@ -234,7 +261,7 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
the same purpose.
\begin{macrodesc}{localmoduletable}{}
No parameters. If a \file{.syn} file exists for the current
If a \file{.syn} file exists for the current
chapter (or for the entire document in \code{howto} documents), a
\env{synopsistable} is created with the contents loaded from the
\file{.syn} file.
@ -251,16 +278,17 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
be used for an advantage when the documents are processed using
the tools for Python documentation processing. In particular, the
generated HTML looks good! There is also an advantage for the
eventual conversion of the documentation to SGML; see Section
\ref{futures}, ``Future Directions.''
eventual conversion of the documentation to SGML (see Section
\ref{futures}, ``Future Directions'').
Each environment is named \env{table\var{cols}}, where \var{cols}
is the number of columns in the table specified in lower-case
Roman numerals. Within each of these environments, an additional
macro, \macro{line\var{cols}}, is defined, where \var{cols}
matches the \var{cols} value of the corresponding table
environment. These environments are all built on top of the
\env{tabular} environment.
environment. These are supported for \var{cols} values of
\code{ii}, \code{iii}, and \code{iv}. These environments are all
built on top of the \env{tabular} environment.
\begin{envdesc}{tableii}{\{\var{colspec}\}\{\var{col1font}\}\{\var{heading1}\}\{\var{heading2}\}}
Create a two-column table using the \LaTeX{} column specifier
@ -346,11 +374,11 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
the creation of indexes. Much of the difficulty arises in the
area of terminology: including the terms an expert would use for a
concept is not sufficient. Coming up with the terms that a novice
would look up is fairly difficult for an author who, hopefully, is
would look up is fairly difficult for an author who, typically, is
an expert in the area she is writing on.
The truly difficult aspects of index generation are not something
which the documentation tools can help with, unfortunately. Ease
The truly difficult aspects of index generation are not areas with
which the documentation tools can help. However, ease
of producing the index once content decisions are make is within
the scope of the tools. Markup is provided which the processing
software is able to use to generate a variety of kinds of index
@ -377,18 +405,27 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
programming languages or even Python.
\begin{macrodesc}{bifuncindex}{\{\var{name}\}}
Add a index entry referring to a built-in function named
\var{name}; parenthesis should not be included after
\var{name}.
\end{macrodesc}
\begin{macrodesc}{exindex}{\{\var{exception}\}}
Add a reference to an exception named \var{exception}. The
exception may be either string- or class-based.
\end{macrodesc}
\begin{macrodesc}{kwindex}{\{\var{keyword}\}}
Add a reference to a language keyword (not a keyword parameter
in a function or method call).
\end{macrodesc}
\begin{macrodesc}{obindex}{\{\var{object type}\}}
Add an index entry for a built-in object type.
\end{macrodesc}
\begin{macrodesc}{opindex}{\{\var{operator}\}}
Add a reference to an operator, such as \samp{+}.
\end{macrodesc}
\begin{macrodesc}{refmodindex}{{[}\var{key}{]}\{\var{module}\}}
@ -419,6 +456,9 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
\end{macrodesc}
\begin{macrodesc}{stindex}{\{\var{statement}\}}
Add an index entry for a statement type, such as \keyword{print}
or \keyword{try}/\keyword{finally}. [XXX Need better examples
of difference from \macro{kwindex}.
\end{macrodesc}
@ -486,7 +526,7 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
\item[\program{dvips}]
This program is a typical part of \TeX{} installations. It is
used to generate PostScript from the ``device independent''
\file{.dvi} files. It is only needed for the conversion to
\file{.dvi} files. It is needed for the conversion to
PostScript.
\item[\program{emacs}]
@ -494,7 +534,7 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
fine kitchen sink it is. It also comes with some of the
processing needed to support the proper menu structures for
Texinfo documents when an info conversion is desired. This is
only needed for the info conversion. Using \program{xemacs}
needed for the info conversion. Using \program{xemacs}
instead of FSF \program{emacs} may lead to instability in the
conversion, but that's because nobody seems to maintain the
Emacs Texinfo code in a portable manner.
@ -543,7 +583,7 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
\item[\program{perl}]
Perl is required for \LaTeX2HTML{} and one of the scripts used
to post-process \LaTeX2HTML output, as well as the
HTML-to-Texinfo conversion. This is only required for
HTML-to-Texinfo conversion. This is required for
the HTML and GNU info conversions.
\item[\program{python}]
@ -558,7 +598,7 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
This section describes the various scripts that are used to
implement various stages of document processing or to orchestrate
entire build sequences. Most of these tools are still only useful
entire build sequences. Most of these tools are only useful
in the context of building the standard documentation, but some
are more general.
@ -602,7 +642,7 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
questions: Can we do this more easily? and, Can we do this
better? After a great deal of discussion with the community, we
have determined that actively pursuing modern structured
documentation systems worth some investment of time.
documentation systems is worth some investment of time.
There appear to be two real contenders in this arena: the Standard
General Markup Language (SGML), and the Extensible Markup Language
@ -639,6 +679,6 @@ distribution, to create or maintain whole documents or sections.
Comments and bug reports on the standard documents should be sent
to \email{python-docs@python.org}. This may include comments
about formatting, content, or grammatical errors.
about formatting, content, grammatical errors, or this document.
\end{document}