Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-23 Thread Neil Cerutti
On 2013-08-23, Chris Angelico  wrote:
> I'm aware of that. However, I'm also aware that many people
> still read things online, even with a less-than-reliable
> internet connection. Hence the question: How many people
> actually do use the downloaded docs? Maybe it'd turn out to be
> quite high, but it's not an unreasonable question.

I use the compiled html/windows help and the integrated with the
interpreter html version of the Python docs, both downloaded and
installed for easy access.

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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-23 Thread Ben Finney
Ned Deily  writes:

> In article <7wvc2xkjvz@benfinney.id.au>,
>  Ben Finney  wrote:
> > Chris Angelico  writes:
> > > Hence the question: How many people actually do use the downloaded
> > > docs? Maybe it'd turn out to be quite high, but it's not an
> > > unreasonable question.
> > 
> > I think it's an unreasonable question [in this context].

> In any case if you want to see this happen, someone needs to open an 
> issue and make a case for it on the Python bug tracker.

Neither Chris nor I are proposing to have PEPs in the installed
documentation :-) You might want to respond directly to the original
post with that suggestion.

-- 
 \ “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do |
  `\it from religious conviction.” —Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), |
_o__)   Pensées, #894. |
Ben Finney

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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-23 Thread Ned Deily
In article <7wvc2xkjvz@benfinney.id.au>,
 Ben Finney  wrote:
> Chris Angelico  writes:
> > Hence the question: How many people actually do use the downloaded
> > docs? Maybe it'd turn out to be quite high, but it's not an
> > unreasonable question.
> 
> I think it's an unreasonable question. What would you accept as an
> answer? Who could possibly be autoritative at estimating such a number?
> How would you choose between competing authorities and estimates?
> 
> It should be sufficient to realise that the reality of internet
> infrastructure in most countries makes it preferable – at least some of
> the time, for some significant, even if small, number of users – to read
> the documentation on local storage instead of on the internet.

In any case if you want to see this happen, someone needs to open an 
issue and make a case for it on the Python bug tracker.

-- 
 Ned Deily,
 n...@acm.org

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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-22 Thread Ben Finney
Chris Angelico  writes:

> Hence the question: How many people actually do use the downloaded
> docs? Maybe it'd turn out to be quite high, but it's not an
> unreasonable question.

I think it's an unreasonable question. What would you accept as an
answer? Who could possibly be autoritative at estimating such a number?
How would you choose between competing authorities and estimates?

It should be sufficient to realise that the reality of internet
infrastructure in most countries makes it preferable – at least some of
the time, for some significant, even if small, number of users – to read
the documentation on local storage instead of on the internet.

-- 
 \“I took a course in speed waiting. Now I can wait an hour in |
  `\ only ten minutes.” —Steven Wright |
_o__)  |
Ben Finney

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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-22 Thread Chris Angelico
On Fri, Aug 23, 2013 at 11:47 AM, Ben Finney  wrote:
> Chris Angelico  writes:
>
>> Also, how many people actually depend on the downloadable
>> documentation, rather than simply reading things online?
>
> Many countries do not have infrastructure that allows reliable, fast,
> low-latency internet access 24-hours-a-day. Most countries's internet
> infrastructure, in fact, does not satisfy all of those.

I'm aware of that. However, I'm also aware that many people still read
things online, even with a less-than-reliable internet connection.
Hence the question: How many people actually do use the downloaded
docs? Maybe it'd turn out to be quite high, but it's not an
unreasonable question.

ChrisA
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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-22 Thread Ben Finney
Chris Angelico  writes:

> Also, how many people actually depend on the downloadable
> documentation, rather than simply reading things online?

Many countries do not have infrastructure that allows reliable, fast,
low-latency internet access 24-hours-a-day. Most countries's internet
infrastructure, in fact, does not satisfy all of those.

And without all of those being satisfied simultaneously, accessing
programmer documentation online is frustratingly inconsistent. It is
much more convenient and reliable, in those cases, to have the
documentation downloaded and accessible on one's development
workstation.

-- 
 \   “We must find our way to a time when faith, without evidence, |
  `\disgraces anyone who would claim it.” —Sam Harris, _The End of |
_o__) Faith_, 2004 |
Ben Finney

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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-22 Thread Terry Reedy

On 8/22/2013 4:39 AM, Aseem Bansal wrote:

I do depend on offline documentation. I have both Python2 and 3's documentation 
offline. A lot of people have 24-hour access to internet but a lot of people 
don't have. And while moving around it isn't always possible to have internet 
then offline documentation is really helpful.


If you have mercurial installed, you can easily download a read-only 
clone of the peps repository (hg.python.org/peps, I believe). You can 
even pull updates whenever you feel like it.


One can also clone the main repository and build the regular docs, 
including the html version thereof. Again, pull and rebuild when you 
expect to be offline.


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Terry Jan Reedy

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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-22 Thread Aseem Bansal
On Wednesday, August 21, 2013 11:25:44 PM UTC+5:30, rand...@fastmail.us wrote:
> I think, though, that if there's any useful information that can be
> obtained by reading accepted PEPs but not the documentation, or if
> things are explained less clearly than in the PEPs, that's a bug in the
> documentation, and should be remedied by adding to the documentation.

PEP8 is referenced a lot but only a very small portion is included in the 
documentation (in the tutorial). I am a Python newbie and there may be other 
PEPs usually referenced which I might not be aware about. 

Maybe add selected PEPs to the documentation? I agree that adding rejected PEPs 
is no good but there may be PEPs worthy of addition to the documentation.
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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-22 Thread Aseem Bansal
I do depend on offline documentation. I have both Python2 and 3's documentation 
offline. A lot of people have 24-hour access to internet but a lot of people 
don't have. And while moving around it isn't always possible to have internet 
then offline documentation is really helpful.
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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-21 Thread Cameron Simpson
On 22Aug2013 03:32, Chris Angelico  wrote:
| Also, how many people actually depend on the downloadable
| documentation, rather than simply reading things online?

I do. It is outstandingly faster, and works when one is offline;
I always have a local copy of a 2.x and 3.x documentation set
as desktop icons, ready for instant opening.

I agree I rarely need the PEPs unless I want to look up something unusual.

Cheers,
-- 
Cameron Simpson 

I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terminator 2
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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-21 Thread Terry Reedy

On 8/21/2013 1:32 PM, Chris Angelico wrote:

On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 3:14 PM, Aseem Bansal  wrote:

Currently the documentation download includes a lot of things but PEPs are not 
its part. I wanted to suggest that PEPs should be included in the download. 
They are very much relevant to Python.


The PEPs are kinda like the specs that Python is built from, rather
than being end-user documentation; certainly most, if not all, are
unnecessary to most use of Python. There's really no point downloading
a whole pile of rejected PEPs as part of the crucial user-facing docs.


The manuals are intended to document current reality. Accepted PEPs 
document plans, often minus details. They do not get updated to reflect 
the initial implementation, let alone subsequent changes. Thus even


There are a few chapters in the manual that reference a PEP, either 
because the details are though to be too esoteric for the manual or 
becuase no one has yet gotten around to rewriting the material for the 
manual. (In the latter case, a patch should be welcome.) So there might 
be a reason to include a '(Highly) Selected PEPs' heading to the main 
page. PEP 8 might be a candidate, though it was originally intended as 
an internal style guide for the stdlib only.


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Terry Jan Reedy

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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-21 Thread Chris Angelico
On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 4:15 AM, Jerry Hill  wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 1:55 PM,   wrote:
>> I think, though, that if there's any useful information that can be
>> obtained by reading accepted PEPs but not the documentation, or if
>> things are explained less clearly than in the PEPs, that's a bug in the
>> documentation, and should be remedied by adding to the documentation.
>
> Personally, the only PEPs I've used as reference material as PEP 8
> (the Python Style Guide), and PEP 249 (the Python Database API
> Specification v2.0).  If I recall correctly, one of the database
> adapters I used basically said that they were PEP 249 compliant, and
> didn't have much documentation beyond that.
>
> It seems to me that adding the PEPs to the compiled documentation
> would be a good thing.  They are at least as useful as the Language
> Reference or the Embedding and Extending Python sections that are
> already included.

Ah, yes, there are a few that would be good. But I don't really see
that all the internally bits (PEP 393, anyone?) and rejected proposals
(PEP 315) need to be in the download. I wouldn't expect the full set
of RFCs to be included with the docs for the socket module, so I
equally don't expect the PEPs to be included.

ChrisA
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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-21 Thread random832
On Wed, Aug 21, 2013, at 14:15, Jerry Hill wrote:
> Personally, the only PEPs I've used as reference material as PEP 8
> (the Python Style Guide), and PEP 249 (the Python Database API
> Specification v2.0).  If I recall correctly, one of the database
> adapters I used basically said that they were PEP 249 compliant, and
> didn't have much documentation beyond that.

Maybe there should be documentation for PEP 249 and other such "API
Specifications" in the main documentation tree, in the same way that
.NET documents interfaces.
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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-21 Thread Jerry Hill
On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 1:55 PM,   wrote:
> I think, though, that if there's any useful information that can be
> obtained by reading accepted PEPs but not the documentation, or if
> things are explained less clearly than in the PEPs, that's a bug in the
> documentation, and should be remedied by adding to the documentation.

Personally, the only PEPs I've used as reference material as PEP 8
(the Python Style Guide), and PEP 249 (the Python Database API
Specification v2.0).  If I recall correctly, one of the database
adapters I used basically said that they were PEP 249 compliant, and
didn't have much documentation beyond that.

It seems to me that adding the PEPs to the compiled documentation
would be a good thing.  They are at least as useful as the Language
Reference or the Embedding and Extending Python sections that are
already included.

-- 
Jerry
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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-21 Thread random832
On Wed, Aug 21, 2013, at 13:32, Chris Angelico wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 3:14 PM, Aseem Bansal 
> wrote:
> > Currently the documentation download includes a lot of things but PEPs are 
> > not its part. I wanted to suggest that PEPs should be included in the 
> > download. They are very much relevant to Python.
> 
> The PEPs are kinda like the specs that Python is built from, rather
> than being end-user documentation; certainly most, if not all, are
> unnecessary to most use of Python. There's really no point downloading
> a whole pile of rejected PEPs as part of the crucial user-facing docs.
> 
> Also, how many people actually depend on the downloadable
> documentation, rather than simply reading things online?

If you've taken your laptop to somewhere there's no wi-fi, it's nice to
have offline help.

I think, though, that if there's any useful information that can be
obtained by reading accepted PEPs but not the documentation, or if
things are explained less clearly than in the PEPs, that's a bug in the
documentation, and should be remedied by adding to the documentation.
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Re: PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-21 Thread Chris Angelico
On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 3:14 PM, Aseem Bansal  wrote:
> Currently the documentation download includes a lot of things but PEPs are 
> not its part. I wanted to suggest that PEPs should be included in the 
> download. They are very much relevant to Python.

The PEPs are kinda like the specs that Python is built from, rather
than being end-user documentation; certainly most, if not all, are
unnecessary to most use of Python. There's really no point downloading
a whole pile of rejected PEPs as part of the crucial user-facing docs.

Also, how many people actually depend on the downloadable
documentation, rather than simply reading things online?

ChrisA
-- 
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list


PEPs should be included with the documentation download

2013-08-20 Thread Aseem Bansal
Currently the documentation download includes a lot of things but PEPs are not 
its part. I wanted to suggest that PEPs should be included in the download. 
They are very much relevant to Python.
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