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16 | <title>1 Introduction </title> | |
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52 | ||
53 | <H1><A NAME="SECTION000200000000000000000"></A><A NAME="intro"></A> | |
54 | <BR> | |
55 | 1 Introduction | |
56 | </H1> | |
57 | ||
58 | <P> | |
59 | Python's documentation has long been considered to be good for a | |
60 | free programming language. There are a number of reasons for this, | |
61 | the most important being the early commitment of Python's creator, | |
62 | Guido van Rossum, to providing documentation on the language and its | |
63 | libraries, and the continuing involvement of the user community in | |
64 | providing assistance for creating and maintaining documentation. | |
65 | ||
66 | <P> | |
67 | The involvement of the community takes many forms, from authoring to | |
68 | bug reports to just plain complaining when the documentation could | |
69 | be more complete or easier to use. All of these forms of input from | |
70 | the community have proved useful during the time I've been involved | |
71 | in maintaining the documentation. | |
72 | ||
73 | <P> | |
74 | This document is aimed at authors and potential authors of | |
75 | documentation for Python. More specifically, it is for people | |
76 | contributing to the standard documentation and developing additional | |
77 | documents using the same tools as the standard documents. This | |
78 | guide will be less useful for authors using the Python documentation | |
79 | tools for topics other than Python, and less useful still for | |
80 | authors not using the tools at all. | |
81 | ||
82 | <P> | |
83 | The material in this guide is intended to assist authors using the | |
84 | Python documentation tools. It includes information on the source | |
85 | distribution of the standard documentation, a discussion of the | |
86 | document types, reference material on the markup defined in the | |
87 | document classes, a list of the external tools needed for processing | |
88 | documents, and reference material on the tools provided with the | |
89 | documentation resources. At the end, there is also a section | |
90 | discussing future directions for the Python documentation and where | |
91 | to turn for more information. | |
92 | ||
93 | <P> | |
94 | If your interest is in contributing to the Python documentation, but | |
95 | you don't have the time or inclination to learn <span class="LaTeX">LaTeX</span> and the | |
96 | markup structures documented here, there's a welcoming place for you | |
97 | among the Python contributors as well. Any time you feel that you | |
98 | can clarify existing documentation or provide documentation that's | |
99 | missing, the existing documentation team will gladly work with you | |
100 | to integrate your text, dealing with the markup for you. Please | |
101 | don't let the material in this document stand between the | |
102 | documentation and your desire to help out! | |
103 | ||
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136 | </div> | |
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138 | <hr /> | |
139 | <span class="release-info">Release 2.4.2, documentation updated on 28 September 2005.</span> | |
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