Please consider Html Help

Monday, July 28,
2014 08:16 AM

Dear Sirs,

Please consider
including Html Help as a third format for MatPlotLib documentation. I was first
introduced to MatPlotLib at an online class in programming which used Python
and MatPlotLib. I was impressed by MatPlotLib but believed that the help system
could be better for someone like me.

At the time, only
PDF was available, which has these problems:

  • The index page
    is difficult to navigate

  • You cannot move
    backwards and forwards as you follow hyperlinks

  • Being page
    oriented, text that spans pages has a distracting page break

  • In some places,
    text spills off the page and is not visible.

You added Html
support online, which is was a great improvement. However it has a fatal flaw
for someone like me:

  • It is
    unavailable to people without an internet connection when then they are
    working.

Of the help
documents that I used or written, (plain text, UNIX man pages, LaTex, WinHelp
and Html Help), Html Help is by far the best system. Html help is:

  • Self contained

  • Available off
    line

  • Easy to
    navigate

  • Easy to use
    index

  • Easy to use
    table of contents

There is only one
problem that I know of concerning using Html Help for MatPlotLib documentation,
support for it on UNIX systems. Rather than rejecting Html Help, why not work
on supporting it on UNIX systems?

To see what I’m
talking about, please take a look at the Html Help version of MatPlotLib 1.3.0
which I converted from the PDF file. It is a sourceforge project which you can
access here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/matplotlibashtmlhelp/?source=directory

What do you
think? Is Html Help a format for offline documentation that you are willing to
support or at least accept? Please reply here or to garysetter@…1200…

Gary Setter

Technically speaking, we do support HTML Help, as that is the format of our online documentation. So, I think what you are really asking for is a packaged version of the HTML documentation that you find online that one can just simply download for themselves?

As a quick solution for the moment, you can go to the following link: https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib.github.com

and click on the “Download .zip” button on the right side. That will get you the online documentation that should work off-line.

Ben Root

···

On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 2:11 PM, Gary Setter <garysetter@…42…> wrote:

Monday, July 28,
2014 08:16 AM

Dear Sirs,

Please consider
including Html Help as a third format for MatPlotLib documentation. I was first
introduced to MatPlotLib at an online class in programming which used Python
and MatPlotLib. I was impressed by MatPlotLib but believed that the help system
could be better for someone like me.

At the time, only
PDF was available, which has these problems:

  • The index page
    is difficult to navigate
  • You cannot move
    backwards and forwards as you follow hyperlinks
  • Being page
    oriented, text that spans pages has a distracting page break
  • In some places,
    text spills off the page and is not visible.

You added Html
support online, which is was a great improvement. However it has a fatal flaw
for someone like me:

  • It is
    unavailable to people without an internet connection when then they are
    working.

Of the help
documents that I used or written, (plain text, UNIX man pages, LaTex, WinHelp
and Html Help), Html Help is by far the best system. Html help is:

  • Self contained
  • Available off
    line
  • Easy to
    navigate
  • Easy to use
    index
  • Easy to use
    table of contents

There is only one
problem that I know of concerning using Html Help for MatPlotLib documentation,
support for it on UNIX systems. Rather than rejecting Html Help, why not work
on supporting it on UNIX systems?

To see what I’m
talking about, please take a look at the Html Help version of MatPlotLib 1.3.0
which I converted from the PDF file. It is a sourceforge project which you can
access here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/matplotlibashtmlhelp/?source=directory

What do you
think? Is Html Help a format for offline documentation that you are willing to
support or at least accept? Please reply here or to garysetter@…42…

Gary Setter


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Matplotlib-devel mailing list

Matplotlib-devel@lists.sourceforge.net

https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-devel

Going to the sourceforge page you have, I see that you mean “HTML Help” as in “.chm” files. That is something different that I am not familiar with. All of our documentation is generated from sphinx, so whatever sphinx supports, we can generate.

···

On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 2:25 PM, Benjamin Root <ben.root@…553…> wrote:

Technically speaking, we do support HTML Help, as that is the format of our online documentation. So, I think what you are really asking for is a packaged version of the HTML documentation that you find online that one can just simply download for themselves?

As a quick solution for the moment, you can go to the following link: https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib.github.com

and click on the “Download .zip” button on the right side. That will get you the online documentation that should work off-line.

Ben Root

On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 2:11 PM, Gary Setter <garysetter@…42…> wrote:

Monday, July 28,
2014 08:16 AM

Dear Sirs,

Please consider
including Html Help as a third format for MatPlotLib documentation. I was first
introduced to MatPlotLib at an online class in programming which used Python
and MatPlotLib. I was impressed by MatPlotLib but believed that the help system
could be better for someone like me.

At the time, only
PDF was available, which has these problems:

  • The index page
    is difficult to navigate
  • You cannot move
    backwards and forwards as you follow hyperlinks
  • Being page
    oriented, text that spans pages has a distracting page break
  • In some places,
    text spills off the page and is not visible.

You added Html
support online, which is was a great improvement. However it has a fatal flaw
for someone like me:

  • It is
    unavailable to people without an internet connection when then they are
    working.

Of the help
documents that I used or written, (plain text, UNIX man pages, LaTex, WinHelp
and Html Help), Html Help is by far the best system. Html help is:

  • Self contained
  • Available off
    line
  • Easy to
    navigate
  • Easy to use
    index
  • Easy to use
    table of contents

There is only one
problem that I know of concerning using Html Help for MatPlotLib documentation,
support for it on UNIX systems. Rather than rejecting Html Help, why not work
on supporting it on UNIX systems?

To see what I’m
talking about, please take a look at the Html Help version of MatPlotLib 1.3.0
which I converted from the PDF file. It is a sourceforge project which you can
access here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/matplotlibashtmlhelp/?source=directory

What do you
think? Is Html Help a format for offline documentation that you are willing to
support or at least accept? Please reply here or to garysetter@…42…

Gary Setter


Infragistics Professional

Build stunning WinForms apps today!

Reboot your WinForms applications with our WinForms controls.

Build a bridge from your legacy apps to the future.

http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=153845071&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk


Matplotlib-devel mailing list

Matplotlib-devel@lists.sourceforge.net

https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-devel

Sphinx does support CHM as the 'htmlhelp' target, though the docs seem to
say that you need another application ("Microsoft HTML Help Workshop") to
finish compiling it.

http://sphinx-doc.org/builders.html#sphinx.builders.htmlhelp.HTMLHelpBuilder

Thomas

···

On 28 July 2014 11:27, Benjamin Root <ben.root@...553...> wrote:

Going to the sourceforge page you have, I see that you mean "HTML Help" as
in ".chm" files. That is something different that I am not familiar with.
All of our documentation is generated from sphinx, so whatever sphinx
supports, we can generate.

Just as a side note, it is indeed possible to view the html docs offline by having a copy of the directory Ben mentioned, and depending on which Unix system you are using, it is possible that this doc is already packaged. I’m thinking of Debian : https://packages.debian.org/jessie/python-matplotlib-doc (python and bumpy docs are also packaged the same way and I use them a lot.)

Best,

Pierre

···

On 28 juillet 2014 18:11:18 UTC, Gary Setter <garysetter@…42…> wrote:

Monday, July 28,
2014 08:16 AM

Dear Sirs,

Please consider
including Html Help as a third format for MatPlotLib documentation. I was first
introduced to MatPlotLib at an online class in programming which used Python
and MatPlotLib. I was impressed by MatPlotLib but believed that the help system
could be better for someone like me.

At the time, only
PDF was available, which has these problems:

  • The index page
    is difficult to navigate
  • You cannot move
    backwards and forwards as you follow hyperlinks
  • Being page
    oriented, text that spans pages has a distracting page break
  • In some places,
    text spills off the page and is not visible.

You added Html
support online, which is was a great improvement. However it has a fatal flaw
for someone like me:

  • It is
    unavailable to people without an internet connection when then they are
    working.

Of the help
documents that I used or written, (plain text, UNIX man pages, LaTex, WinHelp
and Html Help), Html Help is by far the best system. Html help is:

  • Self contained
  • Available off
    line
  • Easy to
    navigate
  • Easy to use
    index
  • Easy to use
    table of contents

There is only one
problem that I know of concerning using Html Help for MatPlotLib documentation,
support for it on UNIX systems. Rather than rejecting Html Help, why not work
on supporting it on UNIX systems?

To see what I’m
talking about, please take a look at the Html Help version of MatPlotLib 1.3.0
which I converted from the PDF file. It is a sourceforge project which you can
access here:

MatplotlibAsHtmlHelp download | SourceForge.net

What do you
think? Is Html Help a format for offline documentation that you are willing to
support or at least accept? Please reply here or to garysetter@…1200…

Gary Setter



---


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Build stunning WinForms apps today!
Reboot your WinForms applications with our WinForms controls.
Build a bridge from your legacy apps to the future.
[http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=153845071&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk](http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=153845071&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk)


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Pierre Haessig

I created a PR at <https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/3325&gt;

The resulting document, Matplotlibdoc.chm, is currently 124 MB, probably because of the many hires gallery images. In general the document looks usable.

Christoph

···

On 7/28/2014 11:32 AM, Thomas Kluyver wrote:

On 28 July 2014 11:27, Benjamin Root <ben.root@...553... > <mailto:ben.root@…553…>> wrote:

    Going to the sourceforge page you have, I see that you mean "HTML
    Help" as in ".chm" files. That is something different that I am not
    familiar with. All of our documentation is generated from sphinx, so
    whatever sphinx supports, we can generate.

Sphinx does support CHM as the 'htmlhelp' target, though the docs seem
to say that you need another application ("Microsoft HTML Help
Workshop") to finish compiling it.

Welcome — Sphinx documentation

Thomas