Re: [Docutils-develop] tiny patch for optik.py

[David G. <go...@us...>]

Aahz wrote:
> Hrm.  Optik is going into Python 2.3 as the new command-line parser.
> Shouldn't we just use Python's CVS?  (With the obvious corollary that
> any patches go back to the Python CVS instead of doc-utils.)

I've been working on the Optik project; all patches have been fed back
to the codebase, as will any future changes.  Oliver's patch fixes an
omission in the Docutils version only; the official Optik doesn't need
it.

There are several reasons I added optik.py to Docutils:

- By including optik.py, there's no extra download & install required.

- Docutils is intended to be compatible with Python 2.0 (Python 2.1 is
  required for the test suite because of inspect.py).  Optik is not in
  Python yet, and never will be for Python 2.2 or earlier.  I also
  include a pre-2.2 version of difflib.py in the test suite because we
  use its functionality.  Such inclusions are quite common I think.

- Docutils is already using the code I added to Optik, but Greg Ward
  (Optik's architect) hasn't had time to check it in to the official
  CVS.  I decided not to wait.

- Optik itself is currently a package, but it's slated to become a
  single module in the stdlib.  The docutils/optik.py module is my
  idea of how to organize it, and took part in discussions with Greg.
  Again, I was impatient.

  But not to worry.  From the comment at the top of optik.py: "Once
  Optik itself becomes a single module, Docutils will include the
  official module and kill off this temporary fork."

Once Optik (in whatever form, known by whatever name) is in Python's
stdlib, I'll add some code to Docutils' setup.py to leave it out if
detected.

-- 
David Goodger  <go...@us...>  Open-source projects:
  - Python Docutils: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/
    (includes reStructuredText: http://docutils.sf.net/rst.html)
  - The Go Tools Project: http://gotools.sourceforge.net/