help(x) for keywords too

[jimjjewett]

BPO	1572210
Nosy	@theller, @birkenfeld, @rhettinger

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2008-01-05.19:33:57.683>
created_at = <Date 2006-10-06.15:06:40.000>
labels = ['type-feature', 'library']
title = 'help(x) for keywords too'
updated_at = <Date 2008-01-05.19:33:57.682>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/jimjjewett'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2008-01-05.19:33:57.682>
actor = 'georg.brandl'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2008-01-05.19:33:57.683>
closer = 'georg.brandl'
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2006-10-06.15:06:40.000>
creator = 'jimjjewett'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 1572210
keywords = []
message_count = 9.0
messages = ['54917', '54918', '54919', '54920', '54921', '54922', '54923', '59214', '59311']
nosy_count = 5.0
nosy_names = ['theller', 'georg.brandl', 'rhettinger', 'jimjjewett', 'JosephArmbruster']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'works for me'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue1572210'
versions = ['Python 2.6']

[jimjjewett]

At the interactive prompt, help(object) is very useful.

It would be nice if it also worked on keywords.

"""
>>> help(object)
Help on class object in module __builtin__:

class object
| The most base type
"""

vs

"""
>>> help(with)
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
"""

At the moment, the workaround is to open the
documentation, pick a document that doesn't seem quite
right (language reference?), go to the index, and look
for the keyword.

[birkenfeld]

Logged In: YES
user_id=849994

Doesn't help("if") work for you?

[jimjjewett]

Logged In: YES
user_id=764593

No, it doesn't -- but putting the keyword in quotes does at
least change the error message to saying that topic and
keyword documentation is not available because the Python
HTML documentation files could not be found.

I'm using Windows XP, the 2.4 and 2.5 binaries from
python.org, if I changed anything it was just the install
directory to be Python2.5 (or 2.4 for 2.4))

The documentation (as a chm file) is found by the F1 key.
Is this likely to be a windows build issue?

[theller]

Logged In: YES
user_id=11105

Is this likely to be a windows build issue?

No. pydoc cannot use the .chm file. Either you should
download the HTML files yourself, or you can compile the
.chm file in a windows command shell (note that the
decompilation runs in the background, and has no user
interface):

C:\Python24\Doc>hh -decompile . Python24.chm

C:\Python24\Doc>dir *.chm
Datenträger in Laufwerk C: ist ...
Volumeseriennummer: ...

Verzeichnis von C:\Python24\Doc

06.10.2006 21:23 3.732 about.html
06.10.2006 21:23 8.689 acks.html
06.10.2006 21:23 4.445 index.html
06.10.2006 21:23 35.525 modindex.html
4 Datei(en) 52.391 Bytes
0 Verzeichnis(se), 8.506.798.080 Bytes frei

C:\Python24\Doc>

The other HTML files are created in subdirectories, and
help("if") now works.

[jimjjewett]

1600491 contains a doc patch, which is basically just adding Tom Heller's advice on *how* to build to the error message.

[rhettinger]

Ideally, if help() doesn't find local HTML files, it should be smart enough to look on doc.python.org. People who need help are not usually in a position to build their own help files.

[jimjjewett]

Pointing to docs.python.org doesn't help if you don't have a current net connection.

In this case, the build instructions *are* the single line from Thomas:

C:\Python24\Doc>hh -decompile . Python25.chm

Since hh comes with windows, the barrier is fairly low.

[JosephArmbruster]

This issue should probably be closed. Performing the decompile on the
command line as directed by the interpreter is as trivial as firing up
the interpreter itself.

It would make more sense to add an option to the installer that would
automagically perform the decompile of the docs via an option or
something at the users request.

Your Thoughts?

[birkenfeld]

1600491 was applied, so I'm closing this.