[Epydoc-devel] epydoc 2.1 can't handle PyGetSetDefs?

[Barry W. <ba...@py...>]

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Hi all,

I've just started to use epydoc 2.1 to document the API for a tool  
that has a lot of Python code but is also extended/embedded.  In  
general, it seems like a great tool and is producing nice output with  
the Epytext markup.  Nice job!

I've had a few minor problems along the way, and some ideas that I'll  
share later, but I wanted to ask a quick question for my current  
blocker.  It appears that epydoc cannot handle class attributes  
defined in extension modules with PyGetSetDef.  We define almost all  
of our attributes this way and all I get are things like

getset_descriptor | alias_limit = <attribute 'alias_limit' of '...'

This even though alias_limit's PyGetSetDef structure contains a  
docstring and in fact you can get the __doc__ of that descriptor just  
fine.

I think you can prove this to yourself with standard Python 2.4 with  
the following:

 >>> from epydoc.html import HTMLFormatter
 >>> import array
 >>> HTMLFormatter.format(array.array.typecode)

Now, at this point you'll get an exception because the TypeError uses  
a local variable before its assignment.  Okay, that's easily fixed  
(use type(object) instead of type(link) on line 3381 of epydoc/ 
html.py).  But that just means you'll get the TypeError that was  
intended:

TypeError: You must use a Link or UID object to specify a  
getset_descriptor

which I think indicates that epydoc 2.1 doesn't know how to handle  
PyGetSetDefs.

I haven't dug into epydoc enough to figure out what needs to be  
changed in order to handle these built-in Python objects.  If you  
have any hints, I'd love to hear them!  I wonder if the problem isn't  
in inspect or pydoc since the interactive prompt's help() doesn't  
much like these objects either.  Try

 >>> import array
 >>> help(array.array.typecode)

to see the docstring ignoring help output.

Thoughts? Clues?  Thanks!
- -Barry




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