\chapter{Undocumented Modules \label{undoc}} Here's a quick listing of modules that are currently undocumented, but that should be documented. Feel free to contribute documentation for them! (Send via email to \email{docs@python.org}.) The idea and original contents for this chapter were taken from a posting by Fredrik Lundh; the specific contents of this chapter have been substantially revised. \section{Frameworks} Frameworks tend to be harder to document, but are well worth the effort spent. \begin{description} \item None at this time. \end{description} \section{Miscellaneous useful utilities} Some of these are very old and/or not very robust; marked with ``hmm.'' \begin{description} \item[\module{bdb}] --- A generic Python debugger base class (used by pdb). \item[\module{ihooks}] --- Import hook support (for \refmodule{rexec}; may become obsolete). \end{description} \section{Platform specific modules} These modules are used to implement the \refmodule{os.path} module, and are not documented beyond this mention. There's little need to document these. \begin{description} \item[\module{ntpath}] --- Implementation of \module{os.path} on Win32, Win64, WinCE, and OS/2 platforms. \item[\module{posixpath}] --- Implementation of \module{os.path} on \POSIX. \item[\module{bsddb185}] --- Backwards compatibility module for systems which still use the Berkeley DB 1.85 module. It is normally only available on certain BSD Unix-based systems. It should never be used directly. \end{description} \section{Multimedia} \begin{description} \item[\module{audiodev}] --- Platform-independent API for playing audio data. \item[\module{linuxaudiodev}] --- Play audio data on the Linux audio device. Replaced in Python 2.3 by the \module{ossaudiodev} module. \item[\module{sunaudio}] --- Interpret Sun audio headers (may become obsolete or a tool/demo). \item[\module{toaiff}] --- Convert "arbitrary" sound files to AIFF files; should probably become a tool or demo. Requires the external program \program{sox}. \end{description} \section{Obsolete \label{obsolete-modules}} These modules are not normally available for import; additional work must be done to make them available. %%% lib-old is empty as of Python 2.5 % Those which are written in Python will be installed into the directory % \file{lib-old/} installed as part of the standard library. To use % these, the directory must be added to \code{sys.path}, possibly using % \envvar{PYTHONPATH}. These extension modules written in C are not built by default. Under \UNIX, these must be enabled by uncommenting the appropriate lines in \file{Modules/Setup} in the build tree and either rebuilding Python if the modules are statically linked, or building and installing the shared object if using dynamically-loaded extensions. % XXX need Windows instructions! \begin{description} \item[\module{timing}] --- Measure time intervals to high resolution (use \function{time.clock()} instead). \end{description} \section{SGI-specific Extension modules} The following are SGI specific, and may be out of touch with the current version of reality. \begin{description} \item[\module{cl}] --- Interface to the SGI compression library. \item[\module{sv}] --- Interface to the ``simple video'' board on SGI Indigo (obsolete hardware). \end{description}