130 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
130 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
Python main documentation -- in LaTeX
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-------------------------------------
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This directory contains the LaTeX sources to the Python documentation.
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They now require LaTeX2e (LaTeX 2.09 compatibility is dropped).
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The Python Reference Manual is no longer maintained in LaTeX. It is
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now a FrameMaker document. The FrameMaker 5.0 files (ref.book,
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ref*.doc) as well as PostScript generated (ref.ps) from it are in the
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subdirectory ref/. (See <ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/framereader>
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for a free reader for FrameMaker documents, for some platforms.) Many
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thanks to Robin Friedrich for the conversion of the Reference Manual
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to FrameMaker and his work on its index.
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If you don't have LaTeX, or if you'd rather not format the
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documentation yourself, you can ftp a tar file containing HTML, PDF,
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or PostScript versions of all documents. Additional formats may be
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available. These should be in the same place where you fetched the
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main Python distribution (try <http://www.python.org> or
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<ftp://ftp.python.org>).
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The following are the LaTeX source files:
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tut.tex The tutorial
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lib.tex, lib*.tex The library reference
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ext.tex How to extend Python
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api.tex Reference for the Python/C API
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All use the "manual" document class and "python" package, derived from
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the old "myformat.sty" style file. These contains many macro
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definitions useful in documenting Python, and set some style parameters.
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There's a Makefile to call LaTeX and the other utilities in the right
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order and the right number of times. This will produce DVI files for
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each document made; to preview them, use xdvi. PostScript is produced
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by the same Makefile target that produces the DVI files. This uses
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the dvips tool. Printing depends on local conventions; at our site,
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we use lpr. For example:
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make lib # create lib.dvi and lib.ps
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xdvi lib # preview lib.dvi
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lpr lib.ps # print on default printer
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What if I find a bug?
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---------------------
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First, check that the bug is present in the online version of the
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documentation at <http://www.python.org/docs/>; we may have already
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fixed it.
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If we haven't, tell us about it. We'd like the documentation to be
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complete and accurate, but have limited time. If you discover any
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inconsistencies between the documentation and implementation, or just
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have suggestions as to how to improve the documentation, let is know!
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Send comments and patches to the Python Documentation Team:
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python-docs@python.org
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Thanks!
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What tools do I need?
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---------------------
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You need to install Python; some of the scripts used to produce the
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documentation are written in Python.
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The simplest way to get the rest of the tools in the configuration we
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used is to install the teTeX TeX distribution, version 0.9. More
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information is available on teTeX at <http://www.tug.org/tetex/>.
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This is a UNIX-only TeX distribution at this time.
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If you don't want to get teTeX, or if you're not using UNIX, here is
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what you'll need:
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To create DVI, PDF, or PostScript files:
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- LaTeX2e, 1995/12/01 or newer. Older versions are likely to
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choke.
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- makeindex. This is used to produce the indexes for the
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library reference and Python/C API reference.
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To create PDF files:
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- pdflatex. We used the one in the teTeX 0.9 distribution
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(version 0.11 at the time of this writing).
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To create PostScript files:
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- dvips. Most TeX installations include this. If you don't
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have one, check CTAN (<ftp://ctan.tug.org/tex-archive/>).
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To create info files:
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- makeinfo. This is available from any GNU mirror.
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To create HTML files:
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- Perl 5.004_04 or newer. Find the software at
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<http://language.perl.com/info/software.html>.
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- LaTeX2HTML 98.1p1, or newer. Releases are available at
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<http://www-dsed.llnl.gov/files/programs/unix/latex2html/>.
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What if Times fonts are not available?
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--------------------------------------
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As distributed, the LaTeX documents use PostScript Times fonts. This
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is done since they are much better looking and produce smaller
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PostScript files. If, however, your TeX installation does not support
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them, they may be easily disabled. Edit the file manual.cls and
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comment out the line that starts "\RequirePackage{times}" using a "%"
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character at the beginning of the line. An alternative is to install
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the right fonts and LaTeX style file.
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Making HTML files
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-----------------
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The LaTeX documents can be converted to HTML using Nikos Drakos'
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LaTeX2HTML converter. See the Makefile; after some twiddling, "make
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l2h" should do the trick.
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For the reference manual, we use Harlequin's webmaker. We're not very
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happy with it and hope that eventually FrameMaker will be able to
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produce HTML without third party help.
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