The Python docs have been redesigned for 2.6. They’re beautiful. The docs for a module are on a single page now (rather than splitting over multiple pages), they’ve added unobtrusive permalinks to individual sections and the whole thing is built on ReST rather than LaTeX.
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Yeah, great. Except that 20% of screen estate now wasted by the idiotic empty green stripe.
I hope they can extract documents of packages in pypi, like CPAN.
gslin - 18th August 2007 13:54 - #
It only lacks user commenting and it'll be perfect then!
Very nice, but I'm not looking forward to loading some of those single pages over a slow connection. The Built-in Types reference will take about three hours over dialup.
Time to download a copy instead of relying on Google, I guess!
ndg - 18th August 2007 15:31 - #
I'd say that the docs home page is quite ugly when viewed with a browser window less large than 1024 pixels. The two columns are too near, and the justified text breaks lines in a... well, ugly way.
However: where did you get the information about the use of ReST (reST?) instead of LaTeX?
Giulio Piancastelli - 18th August 2007 16:43 - #
It certainly is big, but it's got some content in.
Should be put to a better use by adding a full ToC of the current module/class/whatever though.
And it should scroll, too.
Click the show source link in the menu bar on the left
Masklinn - 18th August 2007 17:23 - #
@Masklinn: I see reST... but where was the notice about old documentation in LaTeX?
Giulio Piancastelli - 18th August 2007 18:04 - #
@Giulio: See here - http://docs.python.org/doc/doc.html
Petar Vasić - 18th August 2007 18:52 - #
Arrgh! Why in hell are they setting the font size in pixels to some stupid small size?
Okay, I can at least see the reason for doing it for a website, even if I don't agree with it, but for a reference manual? Why? Why can't they just leave it well enough alone?
Sorry for the rant, but it's really annoying to have control-freaks try to force font sizes how they like it rather than the size most suitable for everybody else.
Please just go back to how it was before. Don't "fix" (used in the loosest possible sense of the word) what wasn't broken.
Jim - 19th August 2007 22:34 - #
The only reason I can see that it'd matter that it was "set in pixels" is if you're using an old version of IE. Please tell me you're not using an old version of IE, and then complaining about font sizes.
The font size looks pretty reasonably large to me, for a standard user.
Lach - 20th August 2007 00:12 - #
No, I'm not using Internet Explorer. It matters because that size is less readable for me than my normal font size, which they have overridden.
There's no such thing as a standard user, though. I'm glad that it looks reasonable for you. All users are not alike.
You realise that you and I can both have the font sizes we prefer, automatically, if they'd just not try to force the font size? I'm not saying they should make the font size larger, I'm saying they should leave it in the hands of the users rather than trying to dictate it for everybody when they have no clue what size is appropriate.
What does forcing the font size accomplish?
Jim - 20th August 2007 01:15 - #
"What does forcing the font size accomplish?"
It makes things look OK for the 99% of people who haven't changed the default text size of their browser. I'm all for resizable text - I bump the size up and down in Camino using keyboard shortcuts on virtually every site I visit - but I really don't mind sites attempting to set the initial site to something that looks good with the typeface and layout that they have chosen to use.
"The only reason I can see that it'd matter that it was "set in pixels" is if you're using an old version of IE."
Where old is "IE 6 with all the current updates", which is a browser lots of people who use Python in corporate settings happen to be stuck with. Telling them to fuck off is a really bad idea. Especially since it's not that hard to do this right, if you know what you're doing.
(on the other hand, the interesting thing with Georg's effort isn't the design; it's that we now have the documentation in a form that's a lot easier to reuse and retarget; it wouldn't surprise me the slightest if people started doing interesting things with this data set in a not too distant future).
It was okay already. Take a look at your mail client. Take a look at your word processor. Take a look at practically any software that revolves around a lot of text. The font size tends to be something similar to the default text size you get in browsers. Or look at the Python documentation that has been successfully used for the past, what, decade or so?
I don't think that size is awful or unreadable. I think people like to use it as an excuse to have their way.
Jim - 20th August 2007 19:16 - #