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[Python-Dev] Py2.3.1

Michael Chermside mcherm at mcherm.com
Tue Aug 26 11:59:39 EDT 2003 
[Michael Chermside]
> I'm a Windows user, and I tend to prefer using html docs. Am I
> unusual in this regard?

[Tim Peters]
> I don't know.  Have you used a .chm file for Python docs (one has been
> separately downloadable for years, but not from python.org)?

Nope.

[Tim continues]
> The display is
> identical to what you'd see if you used IE to browse the HTML docs directly
> today, so it's unclear what it is about "html docs" you might prefer.

Mostly just that it's "more standard". I can view in a browser of my choice,
launch a browser from within my editor/IDE, set bookmarks (but I don't usually
 do that), share on a drive and view from unix (but I don't do that), etc.

[Tim again]
> The
> prime usability gain is that the .chm file supports full-text search across
> the whole set of Python docs, including Boolean (AND, OR, NOT) and proximity
> (NEAR) searches.

Well, that's a significant feature! I don't want to knock a technology
that I haven't even really tried... just wanted to point out that there
are some advantages to HTML. I guess I think Guido's "beta test" idea
sounds good -- I can't think of any other way we'd actually get feedback
from users. Maybe a mention in "What's New In" under the title "where are
the html docs?" could give the gripers a place to complain to so they can
be counted.

Nobody-uses-html-any-more-that-was-so-1990's lly yours,

-- Michael Chermside
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