Doc/README

Python main documentation -- in Latex
-------------------------------------

This directory contains the Latex sources to the Python documentation.

The Python Reference Manual is no longer maintained in Latex.  It is
now a FrameMaker document.  The FrameMaker 5.0 files (ref.book,
ref*.doc) as well as PostScript generated (ref.ps) from it are in the
subdirectory ref/.  (See ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/framereader for
a free reader for FrameMaker documents, for some platforms.)  Many
thanks to Robin Friedrich for the conversion of the Reference Manual
to FrameMaker and his work on its index.

If you don't have Latex, you can ftp a tar file containing PostScript
of all documents.  It should be in the same place where you fetched
the main Python distribution (try http://www.python.org or
ftp://ftp.python.org).

The following are the Latex source files:

	tut.tex				The tutorial
	lib.tex, lib*.tex		The library reference
	ext.tex				How to extend Python
	api.tex				Reference for the Python/C API

All use the style option file "myformat.sty".  This contains some
macro definitions and sets some style parameters.

You need the makeindex utility to produce the index for lib.tex.

There's a Makefile to call Latex and the other utilities in the right
order and the right number of times.  This will 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 my site, I
use lp.  For example:

	make lib			# create lib.dvi and lib.ps
	xdvi lib			# preview lib.dvi
	lp lib.ps			# print on default printer


Using Times fonts
-----------------

As distributed, the Latex documents use the default Tex fonts (CMR).
These qre quite ugly.  If you have the "PSfont" Latex add-on
installed, you can produce versions using Times fonts (and Courier for
fixed text) by inserting "times," in the list of options in the
documentstyle macro in the first line of the files lib.tex, tut.tex,
ext.tex, api.tex, e.g.

	\documentstyle[twoside,times,myformat]{report}


Making HTML files
-----------------

The Latex documents can be converted to HTML using Nikos Drakos'
Latex2html converter.  See the Makefile; after some twiddling, "make
l2h" should do the trick.

For the reference manual, I use Harlequin's webmaker.  I'm not very
happy with it and hope that eventually FrameMaker will be able to
produce HTML without third party help.