documentation of '%r' links to the wrong repr

[Yhg1s]

BPO	17661
Nosy	@Yhg1s, @birkenfeld, @pitrou, @ezio-melotti, @merwok
Files	diff_style_example.PNG diff_style_markup.PNG using-ref.patch: Taking Kyle and Ezio comments into account.

^{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 2013-04-14.08:35:43.182>
created_at = <Date 2013-04-08.12:32:38.012>
labels = ['easy', 'type-feature', 'docs']
title = "documentation of '%r' links to the wrong repr"
updated_at = <Date 2013-04-14.08:35:43.180>
user = 'https://github.com/Yhg1s'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2013-04-14.08:35:43.180>
actor = 'python-dev'
assignee = 'docs@python'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2013-04-14.08:35:43.182>
closer = 'python-dev'
components = ['Documentation']
creation = <Date 2013-04-08.12:32:38.012>
creator = 'twouters'
dependencies = []
files = ['29771', '29772', '29801']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 17661
keywords = ['patch', 'easy']
message_count = 12.0
messages = ['186292', '186379', '186381', '186475', '186482', '186508', '186523', '186540', '186661', '186747', '186895', '186896']
nosy_count = 9.0
nosy_names = ['twouters', 'georg.brandl', 'pitrou', 'ezio.melotti', 'eric.araujo', 'docs@python', 'python-dev', 'kyle.roberts', 'dan.riti']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue17661'
versions = ['Python 2.7']

[Yhg1s]

The documentation of '%r' in http://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting-operations links to the wrong repr, the module (http://docs.python.org/2/library/repr.html#module-repr) instead of the builtin function (http://docs.python.org/2/library/functions.html#func-repr).

[merwok]

Thanks for catching this; Sphinx’ lookup is confusing sometimes. Using .repr or something similar will fix it.

[birkenfeld]

It just highlights the mistake we made calling a builtin module the same name as a builtin function :)

[kyleroberts]

Adding a '.' to the beginning (i.e. .repr) creates a link to repr.html#repr.repr. This made more sense after perusing Sphinx's documentation:

"If you prefix the name with a dot, this order is reversed. For example, in the documentation of Python’s codecs module, :py:func:`open` always refers to the built-in function, while :py:func:`.open` refers to codecs.open()."

I'm not sure what other options I can try after looking at the reST documentation. It seems like our best bet would be if we could define a priority for same-name functions when two definitions are discovered. I didn't see a way to do this in Sphinx/reST so I'm not sure how to move forward with this. I'm assuming we don't want to link directly to the correct url if it can be avoided.

Also, I noticed http://docs.python.org/2/library/repr.html#module-repr links to the wrong repr() a few times where it mentions the "built-in" function.

[pitrou]

It just highlights the mistake we made calling a builtin module the
same name as a builtin function :)

But shouldn't the highlighting be handled by Pygments?
;)

[merwok]

You can always use a ref role instead of func. func tries to find a module, class or function in the global Sphinx index, but ref lets you link to one specific target (see the table at the top of library/functions.rst for an example).

[kyleroberts]

Ah that's the type of thing I was looking for, thanks Éric. I saw the underscored reference in functions.rst last night but figured it was just a local file link. I'll have a patch available later today. Thanks again.

[kyleroberts]

So the :ref: keyword helps and creates a link, but it has the unfortunate side effect of adding different markup and style. I've attached two images to illustrate the differences. I couldn't find a way in the Sphinx or reST documentation to force it to style like a :func:, and my searches didn't come up with much either. Does anyone know of a way to style a :ref: just like a :func:?

The code I used to create the fixed link is:

:ref:`repr() <func-repr>`

[ezio-melotti]

I don't think the style is so important, especially since this issue only affects 2.7.

[danriti]

Reproduced the issue and generated a patch following Kyle's documented approach.

Please note that this patch addresses the link problem, but does not address the style issue. Thanks.

[birkenfeld]

Fixed, thanks.

[python-dev]

New changeset dd5e7aef4d5b by Georg Brandl in branch '2.7':
Closes bpo-17661: fix references to repr() going to module repr.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/dd5e7aef4d5b