Replace X.X with real version number in docs

[brandon-rhodes]

I always have my students install virtualenv but not pip system-wide, since a system-wide pip install is so dangerous — they will get no warning if they bring up the Terminal then try pip installing something without activating a project’s virtualenv first, yet will be mucking up their system Python and not bringing the dependency into play for the project that needs it.

Unfortunately the install story for virtualenv.py is a bit rough for newcomers who do not want a system-wide Administrator-password-powered pip, because the install instructions cannot be cut-and-pasted because they include an X.X version number placeholder where the version number should go. Editing the X.X is very difficult and error-prone for students who have only ever used a keyboard for texting before, and the install instructions make them do this three times — even assuming that they can figure out what the current version of virtualenv is!

Would you accept a pull request from me automating the substitution of the real version number for X.X in your documentation via the makefile or Sphinx? I assume that you don't want to have the version numbers literally in the text which would make you manually edit them every time, but I think they could appear in the output with an automated find-replace of the source.

[pfmoore]

I'm happy to accept such a PR. You make a very good point. In actual fact, some form of standalone "get-virtualenv" script might be even better (Windows users don't typically have curl) so I may look at providing that at some point. But making it possible to cut and paste the commands from the documentation seems like a sensible short-term usability improvement.

[merwok]

I think Sphinx supports automatic injection of the version defined in conf.py into its outputs.

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