[Zope] interfaces and help system

[sean.upton@uniontrib.com]

Slightly off topic, I do have an interfaces gripe... or question, perhaps...
If interfaces are to be used for API documentation, one thing they lack in
the scarecrow interfaces implementation is the ability to declare constants
in the interface like you would in IDL or Java.  DOM node type numbers are a
good example of what comes to my mind in this case.  Any thoughts on how you
would document objects that fulfill this sort of interface with scarecrow
interfaces?

Sean

-----Original Message-----
From: Amos Latteier [mailto:amos@zope.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2001 10:52 AM
To: k_vertigo@yahoo.com
Cc: zope@zope.org
Subject: Re: [Zope] interfaces and help system


kapil wrote:
 > is there a way to register interfaces as part of the online
 > help system?

Yes there is, though it is an experimental feature which isn't currently 
being used anywhere in Zope. If you register an API help topic Zope will 
not only recognize classes but interfaces in the .py file. You don't 
have to do anything special just use context.registerHelp() in your 
product's initialization function.

The relevant code is in HelpSys/APIHelpTopic.py

BTW, in the future, I think all API docs should be done with interfaces. 
I have a proposal in the fishbowl for this.

   http://dev.zope.org/Wikis/DevSite/Projects/APIDocs/

Sadly this project is currently on hold. The reason is that we don't 
have enough time to work on it. I'd still like to see this project 
revived, once we have resources available to work on it.

-Amos

-- 
Amos Latteier         amos@zope.com
Zope Corporation      http://www.zope.com/


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