Pydoc is the standard documentation module for the

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

Python. Similar to the functionality of Perldoc within

Perl Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was offic ...

and

Javadoc Javadoc (originally cased JavaDoc) is a documentation generator created by Sun Microsystems for the Java language (now owned by Oracle Corporation) for generating API documentation in HTML format from Java source code. The HTML format is used for ...

within

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

, Pydoc allows Python programmers to access Python's documentation help files, generate text and

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaS ...

pages with documentation specifics, and find the appropriate module for a particular job.Pydoc. Accessed 11/27/2010
/ref> Pydoc can be accessed from a module-specific

GUI The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

,Using Pydoc. Accessed 11/27/2010
/ref> from within the Python interpreter, or from a

command line A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

shell.Charming Python: pydoc and distutils modules. Accessed 01/01/2012
/ref> Developed by Ka-Ping Yee, it is included by default in all versions of Python since Python 2.1 and is available for download for 1.5.2, 1.6, and 2.0. Pydoc is used to extract documentation from the source code itself. More comprehensive documentation is generated from external

reStructuredText reStructuredText (RST, ReST, or reST) is a file format for textual data used primarily in the Python programming language community for technical documentation. It is part of the Docutils project of the Python Doc-SIG (Documentation Special Inte ...

documents using the

Sphinx A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon. In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...

documentation system.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Archive of Pydoc for Python versions 1.5 to 2.5

Open source package library for PyPI

Sphinx documentation
Python (programming language) development tools Free documentation generators

See also

References

External links