Re: [Docutils-users] External command directive?

[Doug H. <dou...@gm...>]

On May 1, 2010, at 6:55 PM, Roberto Alsina wrote:

> Has anyone written a directive to insert the output of an external  
> command?

For PyMOTW, I use cog to pre-process the rst files before converting  
them to HTML/LaTeX.  I see two benefits of pre-processing over using a  
directive.  First, I can run cog once to insert the command output,  
then generate matching HTML and PDF versions of the document.  Some of  
the code samples in PyMOTW produce different results each time the run  
(they show object id values, for example).

Second, some of those code samples take a few seconds to run.  A  
second or two for each of hundreds of separate files adds up, and  
building the output file starts to take too much time.  Inserting the  
command output each time I wanted to produce HTML would disrupt my  
writing flow.  Pre-processing lets me separate the steps, so I only  
run cog when code changes, and I can work on the exposition without  
delays.

The full toolchain I use is based on Paver, and getting a little long  
in the tooth.  I'm planning to move to a stand-alone version of cog  
soon.

http://www.doughellmann.com/articles/how-tos/writing-technical-documentation-sphinx//index.html#capturing-program-output-cog

http://nedbatchelder.com/code/cog/

Doug