In the help() function the order of methods changes

[py-user]

BPO	17205
Nosy	@bitdancer, @py-user

^{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 2013-02-14.16:14:56.145>
created_at = <Date 2013-02-14.10:56:30.173>
labels = ['interpreter-core', 'type-feature', 'docs']
title = 'In the help() function the order of methods changes'
updated_at = <Date 2013-02-14.16:14:56.143>
user = 'https://github.com/py-user'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2013-02-14.16:14:56.143>
actor = 'r.david.murray'
assignee = 'docs@python'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2013-02-14.16:14:56.145>
closer = 'r.david.murray'
components = ['Documentation', 'Interpreter Core']
creation = <Date 2013-02-14.10:56:30.173>
creator = 'py.user'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 17205
keywords = []
message_count = 3.0
messages = ['182086', '182095', '182109']
nosy_count = 4.0
nosy_names = ['r.david.murray', 'docs@python', 'py.user', 'Ramchandra Apte']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'wont fix'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue17205'
versions = ['Python 3.3']

[py-user]

>>> class A:
...   '''class'''
...   def c(self):
...     '''c doc'''
...     pass
...   def b(self):
...     '''b doc'''
...     pass
...   def a(self):
...     '''a doc'''
...     pass
... 
>>> help(A)

class A(builtins.object)
 |  class
 |  
 |  Methods defined here:
 |  
 |  a(self)
 |      a doc
 |  
 |  b(self)
 |      b doc
 |  
 |  c(self)
 |      c doc
 |  
 

When I have many methods ordered in the source in readable order, the help() function is mixing them, so the last method goes to the top and the first method goes to the bottom.

I would like to have an option, whether I want sort them or not.

[RamchandraApte]

Sorry, but there is no way of telling the order as methods are respresented internally as a dictionary. Please close this as invalid.

[bitdancer]

Ramchandra is correct. If you were to implement a "don't sort" flag, what you would get is *random* order (and a different order each time, in 3.3+).

Further, this is Python-interpreter internal data structure we are talking about, so it isn't even an option to use OrderedDict in pydoc.

I'm closing this as "won't fix" because it would certainly be nice to have this ability...but there is no practical way to implement it.