| Python standard documentation -- in LaTeX |
| ----------------------------------------- |
| |
| This directory contains the LaTeX sources to the Python documentation |
| and tools required to support the formatting process. The documents |
| now require LaTeX2e; LaTeX 2.09 compatibility has been dropped. |
| |
| If you don't have LaTeX, or if you'd rather not format the |
| documentation yourself, you can ftp a tar file containing HTML, PDF, |
| or PostScript versions of all documents. Additional formats may be |
| available. These should be in the same place where you fetched the |
| main Python distribution (try <http://www.python.org/> or |
| <ftp://ftp.python.org/pub/python/>). |
| |
| The following are the LaTeX source files: |
| |
| api/*.tex Python/C API Reference Manual |
| doc/*.tex Documenting Python |
| ext/*.tex Extending and Embedding the Python Interpreter |
| lib/*.tex Python Library Reference |
| mac/*.tex Macintosh Library Modules |
| ref/*.tex Python Reference Manual |
| tut/*.tex Python Tutorial |
| inst/*.tex Installing Python Modules |
| dist/*.tex Distributing Python Modules |
| |
| Most use the "manual" document class and "python" package, derived from |
| the old "myformat.sty" style file. The Macintosh Library Modules |
| document uses the "howto" document class instead. These contains many |
| macro definitions useful in documenting Python, and set some style |
| parameters. |
| |
| There's a Makefile to call LaTeX and the other utilities in the right |
| order and the right number of times. By default, it will build the |
| HTML version of the documentation, but DVI, PDF, and PostScript can |
| also be made. To view the generated HTML, point your favorite browser |
| at the top-level index (html/index.html) after running "make". |
| |
| The Makefile can also produce DVI files for each document made; to |
| preview them, use xdvi. PostScript is produced by the same Makefile |
| target that produces the DVI files. This uses the dvips tool. |
| Printing depends on local conventions; at our site, we use lpr. For |
| example: |
| |
| make paper-letter/lib.ps # create lib.dvi and lib.ps |
| xdvi paper-letter/lib.dvi # preview lib.dvi |
| lpr paper-letter/lib.ps # print on default printer |
| |
| |
| What if I find a bug? |
| --------------------- |
| |
| First, check that the bug is present in the development version of the |
| documentation at <http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/>; we may |
| have already fixed it. |
| |
| If we haven't, tell us about it. We'd like the documentation to be |
| complete and accurate, but have limited time. If you discover any |
| inconsistencies between the documentation and implementation, or just |
| have suggestions as to how to improve the documentation, let is know! |
| Specific bugs and patches should be reported using our bug & patch |
| databases at: |
| |
| http://sourceforge.net/projects/python |
| |
| Other suggestions or questions should be sent to the Python |
| Documentation Team: |
| |
| docs@python.org |
| |
| Thanks! |
| |
| |
| What tools do I need? |
| --------------------- |
| |
| You need to install Python; some of the scripts used to produce the |
| documentation are written in Python. You don't need this |
| documentation to install Python; instructions are included in the |
| README file in the Python distribution. |
| |
| The simplest way to get the rest of the tools in the configuration we |
| used is to install the teTeX TeX distribution, versions 0.9 or newer. |
| More information is available on teTeX at <http://www.tug.org/tetex/>. |
| This is a Unix-only TeX distribution at this time. This documentation |
| release was tested with the 1.0.7 release, but there have been no |
| substantial changes since late in the 0.9 series, which we used |
| extensively for previous versions without any difficulty. |
| |
| If you don't want to get teTeX, here is what you'll need: |
| |
| To create DVI, PDF, or PostScript files: |
| |
| - LaTeX2e, 1995/12/01 or newer. Older versions are likely to |
| choke. |
| |
| - makeindex. This is used to produce the indexes for the |
| library reference and Python/C API reference. |
| |
| To create PDF files: |
| |
| - pdflatex. We used the one in the teTeX distribution (pdfTeX |
| version 3.14159-13d (Web2C 7.3.1) at the time of this |
| writing). Versions even a couple of patchlevels earlier are |
| highly likely to fail due to syntax changes for some of the |
| pdftex primitives. |
| |
| To create PostScript files: |
| |
| - dvips. Most TeX installations include this. If you don't |
| have one, check CTAN (<ftp://ctan.tug.org/tex-archive/>). |
| |
| To create info files: |
| |
| Note that info support is currently being revised using new |
| conversion tools by Michael Ernst <mernst@cs.washington.edu>. |
| |
| - makeinfo. This is available from any GNU mirror. |
| |
| - emacs or xemacs. Emacs is available from the same place as |
| makeinfo, and xemacs is available from ftp.xemacs.org. |
| |
| - Perl. Find the software at |
| <http://language.perl.com/info/software.html>. |
| |
| - HTML::Element. If you don't have this installed, you can get |
| this from CPAN. Use the command: |
| |
| perl -e 'use CPAN; CPAN::install("HTML::Element");' |
| |
| You may need to be root to do this. |
| |
| To create HTML files: |
| |
| - Perl 5.6.0 or newer. Find the software at |
| <http://language.perl.com/info/software.html>. |
| |
| - LaTeX2HTML 99.2b8 or newer. Older versions are not |
| supported; each version changes enough that supporting |
| multiple versions is not likely to work. Many older |
| versions don't work with Perl 5.6 as well. This also screws |
| up code fragments. ;-( Releases are available at: |
| <http://www.latex2html.org/>. |
| |
| |
| LaTeX (or pdfLaTeX) ran out of memory; how can I fix it? |
| -------------------------------------------------------- |
| |
| This is known to be a problem at least on Mac OS X, but it has been |
| observed on other systems in the past. |
| |
| On some systems, the default sizes of some of the memory pools |
| allocated by TeX needs to be changed; this is a configuration setting |
| for installations based on web2c (most if not all installations). |
| This is usually set in a file named texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf (where the |
| top-level texmf/ directory is part of the TeX installation). If you |
| get a "buffer overflow" warning from LaTeX, open that configuration |
| file and look for the "main_memory.pdflatex" setting. If there is not |
| one, you can add a line with the setting. The value 1500000 seems to |
| be sufficient for formatting the Python documetantion. |
| |
| |
| What if Times fonts are not available? |
| -------------------------------------- |
| |
| As distributed, the LaTeX documents use PostScript Times fonts. This |
| is done since they are much better looking and produce smaller |
| PostScript files. If, however, your TeX installation does not support |
| them, they may be easily disabled. Edit the file |
| texinputs/pypaper.sty and comment out the line that starts |
| "\RequirePackage{times}" by inserting a "%" character at the beginning |
| of the line. If you're formatting the docs for A4 paper instead of |
| US-Letter paper, change paper-a4/pypaper.sty instead. An alternative |
| is to install the right fonts and LaTeX style file. |
| |
| |
| What if I want to use A4 paper? |
| ------------------------------- |
| |
| Instead of building the PostScript by giving the command "make ps", |
| give the command "make PAPER=a4 ps"; the output will be produced in |
| the paper-a4/ subdirectory. (You can use "make PAPER=a4 pdf" if you'd |
| rather have PDF output.) |
| |
| |
| Making HTML files |
| ----------------- |
| |
| The LaTeX documents can be converted to HTML using Nikos Drakos' |
| LaTeX2HTML converter. See the Makefile; after some twiddling, "make" |
| should do the trick. |
| |
| |
| What else is in here? |
| --------------------- |
| |
| There is a new LaTeX document class called "howto". This is used for |
| the new series of Python HOWTO documents which is being coordinated by |
| Andrew Kuchling <akuchlin@mems-exchange.org>. The file |
| templates/howto.tex is a commented example which may be used as a |
| template. A Python script to "do the right thing" to format a howto |
| document is included as tools/mkhowto. These documents can be |
| formatted as HTML, PDF, PostScript, or ASCII files. Use "mkhowto |
| --help" for information on using the formatting tool. |
| |
| For authors of module documentation, there is a file |
| templates/module.tex which may be used as a template for a module |
| section. This may be used in conjunction with either the howto or |
| manual document class. Create the documentation for a new module by |
| copying the template to lib<mymodule>.tex and editing according to the |
| instructions in the comments. |
| |
| Documentation on the authoring Python documentation, including |
| information about both style and markup, is available in the |
| "Documenting Python" manual. |
| |
| |
| Copyright notice |
| ================ |
| |
| The Python source is copyrighted, but you can freely use and copy it |
| as long as you don't change or remove the copyright notice: |
| |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Copyright (c) 2000-2003 Python Software Foundation. |
| All rights reserved. |
| |
| Copyright (c) 2000 BeOpen.com. |
| All rights reserved. |
| |
| Copyright (c) 1995-2000 Corporation for National Research Initiatives. |
| All rights reserved. |
| |
| Copyright (c) 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum. |
| All rights reserved. |
| |
| See the file "commontex/license.tex" for information on usage and |
| redistribution of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES. |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |