Getting Help [in Python]

https://pulsar17.me/2024/02/ongettinghelp

by signa11 • 2 years ago

19 18 2 years ago

ericra3• 2 years ago

I think that help() is great too, but I'm not a fan of the interactive nature of it. I'd rather the raw text just get dumped to a file so I can browse it more easily, so I do something like this[1] to print the output of both the help() and dir() functions on any Python object to a text file in the current directory. That way it's a bit easier to search through if it's a lot of info.

[1] https://github.com/EricRa/python-scripts/blob/main/modules/p...

SushiHippie• 2 years ago

You could also make use of the pydoc command

either dump the help text via

  python -m pydoc requests.Request > req_help.txt

or open a web server to browse the modules and their help texts via

  python -m pydoc -b

worik7• 2 years ago

Why is Python so popular? I do not understand

* It has syntax from hell. Significant white-space, tabs are not spaces... I used to configure emacs to convert tabs to spaces... Silly me

* It is achingly slow (and often a memory hog, thinking of Django requiring 2GB to install). This might not matter if it were only used as a script glue, but larger and larger applications keep getting built in python. Why?

* It does not maintain backward compatibility. I recently moved to Debian-12, and two important, to me, big python systems failed: Yocto and mod-ui. It was the difference between 3.10 and 3.27(?what ever is on Debian 12)

It looks like a complete mess from where I sit. That last point, lack of backward compatibility is, IMO, a reason to *not* use python for anything that is expected to be around for a while.

And it is hugely popular.

Why?

chrismcb• 2 years ago

I'm not sure what converting tabs to spaces had to do with Python. I convert tabs to spaces and python runs just fine. Yes there enforcing of whitespace is one thing I don't like. Django is not Python. Django is a nice framework, but not a requirement. What other syntax don't you like. There have been breaking changes, especially going from 2.x to 3.x. you also can't go backwards. Not aware of issues going forward from 3.x. On the other hand it is fairly easy to migrate from 2.x to 3.x.

worik7• 2 years ago

There have been breaking changes, especially going from 2.x to 3.x.

That would be tolerable. That is what major version changes are for.

Crudly put Debian 11 to Debian 12 introduced breaking changes that I (from memory) tracked down to things introduced in 3.10 or 3.11

I'm not sure what converting tabs to spaces had to do with Python.

This is a minor gripe but I do not like tabs, I like tab stops, so I convert tabs to the spaces required to reach a tab stop. Tabs are the syntax required for Python. A bunch of spaces are not enough.

Or do I have that horribly wrong (would not be the first time)

It is the breaking changes in version 3 that have made me an anti evangelist for Python. Not being able to run `mod-ui`, and friends in particular.

I dug around trying to make it work, and it was a mess. (Not mod-ui, love your work, but the Python).

ericra3• 2 years ago

I'm not sure it's a big mystery. It's pleasant to write and allows devs to get things done quickly. Many of your criticisms are strange..

For instance, I don't see how it's necessarily a memory hog. I wrote a (relatively simple) Windows/Linux GUI application in Python that I use regularly, and it uses around 20MB of RAM.

I'm not familiar with how many breaking changes have been made in Python 3, but I suspect there haven't been many major ones in the last 10 years (since 3.4). It would be interesting to see a list, though.

worik7• 2 years ago

Mailman 3 is written in Python using Django.

It is a case in point in my argument "NOT Python"

Mailman 1 was written in 40k lines of Perl (Another sin, Perl too is a scripting language not an application development language, but I digress)

Mailman 3 required me to upgrade a VPS to 2GB to get it to run. People (I forget who) tell me it is the installation part of installing Django - which is Python- that hogs the memory. As if I care. The waste is staggering.

I think we should all stop using Python

" It's pleasant to write and allows devs to get things done quickly. " Perhaps, for short lasting and small things. But people are building cathedrals out of this.

" It's pleasant to write and allows devs to get things done quickly. "

Use Lisp

digdugdirk• 2 years ago

I'm a mechanical engineer. I design physical products in the consumer goods market. Only one of your points even makes sense to me (As in - yes, I know what the tab key does) but that doesn't impact my daily life because my editor takes care of that for me.

On the other hand, I'm able to use python to perform tasks that would take my team of engineers/designers weeks to accomplish. I'm able to automate documentation and import/export/convert various files to enable collaboration in a way that even the most diligent engineer wouldn't have time to keep up with.

In short, python allows me to single handedly enable my team to operate at a level that wouldn't be possible otherwise. And I'm able to do this in small chunks, allowing the code to leave my mind while I go back to my "real job", while still being simple to come back to weeks/months later and modify/extend as needed.

It's a game changing programming language, and I'd never have been able to accomplish any of that if it wasn't designed to be as simple (yet fully functional) as possible.

worik7• 2 years ago

Perl

Lisp

Guile

Lua

The world is full of scripting languages. I am really only familiar with Perl - but Perl 5 programmes I wrote in 1997 run today.

There is actually not a lot special about Python. It is a scripting language. Any vaguely modern (post 1990) scripting language would have all the qualities you attribute to Python.

What is special about Python is the Python central committee does not care of your code does not run, and many package maintainers write code that takes 2G to do what we once did in 40k.

Why should they care? It seems only I care.

I have seen this cost real money. It has cost me, personally, real money. Not to get too technical, but it is shit.

zem• 2 years ago

unfortunately, the `help` system also has no provision for finding out where `sleep()` is defined. (google finds it easily, of course)

Getting Help [in Python]

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