On 17Nov2017 11:09, Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfr...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
On 17 Nov 2017 12:36:37 GMT, r...@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) declaimed
“The argument to pydoc can be the name of a function,
module, or package, or a dotted reference to a class,
method, or function within a module or module in a package.”
, but not for »pi«:
math.pi is NOT a "function, module, or package..."
Would you expect
help(1)
to produce something like "Multiplicative identity"? (or "Boolean truth"
especially for older Python code before True/False became standard). Why
should
help(3.1415926536) #or whatever precision is used in
module math
produce anything? That IS what is seen by the help() operation, not the
name "pi", just a number. And if help() somehow recognizes 3.1415926536 as
pi, what does it do if provided with just 3.141592654 instead?
This is not a consistent argument.
mymath.py:
def square(x):
''' Return the square of a value: its value muliplied by itself.
'''
return x*x
my code:
from mymath import square
def sq2(x):
return x*x
I expect help(square) to have doco and don't expect help(sq2) to have doco.
Stefan's argument points to the deficiency that one cannot attach a docstring
to things like numbers. I've certainly wanted to.
I don't think he's arguing that help magicly recognises 3.1415926536 as "pi"
and produces a docstring for it and all "sufficiently close" values. I'm not.
But the math module has bound "pi" to a specific float. Why _can't_ we annotate
that float with a docstring?
math.py:
pi = 3.1415926536
pi.__doc__ = 'The ratio of round things to straight things. Roughly 3.'
Now, I accept that the "CPython coaleases some values to shared singletons"
thing is an issue, but the language doesn't require it, and one could change
implementations such that applying a docstring to an object _removed_ it from
the magic-shared-singleton pool, avoiding conflicts with other uses of the same
value by coincidence.
Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <c...@cskk.id.au> (formerly c...@zip.com.au)
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