Re: How to reset document string
Dear Carl, Your ideas are extremely good, and I liked idea 2 especially, based on that I am considering following approach. Eg: let us say I have module named myModule and exposing myModule.myAPI So I will now rename myModule as _myModule and write a python layer with myModule So my python layer will look like this file name myModule.py import _myModule def myAPI(arg1, arg2): @param arg1 help string @param arg2 help string _myModule.myAPI(arg1,arg2) # actual API So I will provide mechanism which reads the help files and generates this binding python file and reload the module, So now my python editor has the new python strings. Also another advantages of this approach is if customer choses his own IDE he will still get the documentation of our APIs, by just ensuring these python files are in PYTHON_PATH I think this is better approach, kindly please let me know your comments Regards, Anand On Aug 7, 2:54 am, Anand K Rayudu an...@esi-india.com wrote: Dear All, We have extended and embedded python into my our application. We exposed few APIs to python using Py_InitModule(myModuleName, myMethods); where my methods are static PyMethodDef VistaDbMethods[] = { { (char *)myAPI,_myAPICFunctionPtr ,METH_VARARGS,usage: MyHelp) } Now problem is ml_doc (Document string). Most of the time the strings given by development team is not descriptive enough, so support team want to enhance these docstring on need basis and supply to customer The idea is we will provide get latest help option from application, which will contact our webserver or allow user to pick new help document, which will re apply the help on fly. From then on our script editors will show the new enhanced help. How do I achieve this. Sounds very cool. I have a few ideas. 1. Since you say you are embedding Python in your application, the most direct way might be to modify the Python interpreter to allow the __doc__ attribute to be changed. You'd have to modify the PyCFunction type (defined in methodobject.h and methodobject.c) to allow overriding the compiled-in doc field. 2. Instead of replacing the __doc__ attribute of the function, just replace the whole function with a wrapper. So, for instance, if your application decides to update the docstring for myModuleName.myAPI(), instead of running code like this: myModuleName.myAPI.__doc__ = 'new docstring' run code like this: def create_wrapper(func,docstring): def wrapper(*args): return func(*args) wrapper.__doc__ = doc return wrapper myModuleName.myAPI = create_wrapper( myModuleName.myAPI,'new docstring') So now myApi is a Python function with the new docstring that calls the old function. (Note: if you are concerned with efficiency, it's possible to write a wrapper in C that has very little overhead.) This approach has minor disadvantages (such as if any code write from myModuleName import myAPI--it won't see the new version) but it may be the easiest approach. 3. Instead of customizing the __doc__ attribute, store any custom docstrings in a dictionary keyed by the function. custom_doc[myModuleName.myApi] = 'new docstring' Your script editor, when looking for documentation, will first search in this custom area to see if the docstring has been overridden; if so, use that; if not, use the docstring. Something like this: def documentation_to_use_in_script_editor(func): try: return custom_doc[func] except KeyError: return func.__doc__ That has the negative of the special docstring not being visible at an interactive prompt. I have given you some fairly vague answers, hopefully that'll give you some idea. It sounds like you have an ambitious project, suggesting that you are probably good enough to implement the suggestions. Carl Banks -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: How to reset document string
Anand K Rayudu schrieb: Dear All, We have extended and embedded python into my our application. We exposed few APIs to python using Py_InitModule(myModuleName, myMethods); where my methods are static PyMethodDef VistaDbMethods[] = { { (char *)myAPI,_myAPICFunctionPtr ,METH_VARARGS,usage: MyHelp) } Now problem is ml_doc (Document string). Most of the time the strings given by development team is not descriptive enough, so support team want to enhance these docstring on need basis and supply to customer The idea is we will provide get latest help option from application, which will contact our webserver or allow user to pick new help document, which will re apply the help on fly. From then on our script editors will show the new enhanced help. How do I achieve this. I tried to change Module.MyAPI.__doc__ = My new doc This failles as it is read only attribute. Another approach could be calling Py_InitModule(myModuleName, myMethods); with new help string. But It is not working, So I am not sure what is the right way to do it To put the right docstrings into the embedded interpreter. I don't know about your processes, but either the support just suggests better strings developers put them in there, or maybe some sort of shared header-file could be used that the developers use support enhances. Something like this: --- docstrings.h --- #define VistaDbMethods__doc__ usage: MyHelp And if that's enhanced over time by the support-staff, docs will get better. Hopefully. Alternatives are: - beating your developers with a clue-stick into submission that good docs are important - write a usage-guide using e.g. sphinx and release that as add-on-docs. Diez -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: How to reset document string
On Aug 7, 2:54 am, Anand K Rayudu an...@esi-india.com wrote: Dear All, We have extended and embedded python into my our application. We exposed few APIs to python using Py_InitModule(myModuleName, myMethods); where my methods are static PyMethodDef VistaDbMethods[] = { { (char *)myAPI,_myAPICFunctionPtr ,METH_VARARGS,usage: MyHelp) } Now problem is ml_doc (Document string). Most of the time the strings given by development team is not descriptive enough, so support team want to enhance these docstring on need basis and supply to customer The idea is we will provide get latest help option from application, which will contact our webserver or allow user to pick new help document, which will re apply the help on fly. From then on our script editors will show the new enhanced help. How do I achieve this. Sounds very cool. I have a few ideas. 1. Since you say you are embedding Python in your application, the most direct way might be to modify the Python interpreter to allow the __doc__ attribute to be changed. You'd have to modify the PyCFunction type (defined in methodobject.h and methodobject.c) to allow overriding the compiled-in doc field. 2. Instead of replacing the __doc__ attribute of the function, just replace the whole function with a wrapper. So, for instance, if your application decides to update the docstring for myModuleName.myAPI(), instead of running code like this: myModuleName.myAPI.__doc__ = 'new docstring' run code like this: def create_wrapper(func,docstring): def wrapper(*args): return func(*args) wrapper.__doc__ = doc return wrapper myModuleName.myAPI = create_wrapper( myModuleName.myAPI,'new docstring') So now myApi is a Python function with the new docstring that calls the old function. (Note: if you are concerned with efficiency, it's possible to write a wrapper in C that has very little overhead.) This approach has minor disadvantages (such as if any code write from myModuleName import myAPI--it won't see the new version) but it may be the easiest approach. 3. Instead of customizing the __doc__ attribute, store any custom docstrings in a dictionary keyed by the function. custom_doc[myModuleName.myApi] = 'new docstring' Your script editor, when looking for documentation, will first search in this custom area to see if the docstring has been overridden; if so, use that; if not, use the docstring. Something like this: def documentation_to_use_in_script_editor(func): try: return custom_doc[func] except KeyError: return func.__doc__ That has the negative of the special docstring not being visible at an interactive prompt. I have given you some fairly vague answers, hopefully that'll give you some idea. It sounds like you have an ambitious project, suggesting that you are probably good enough to implement the suggestions. Carl Banks -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list