================================== RestructuredText (ReST) Extensions ================================== What is this? ------------- The extensions collected in this package provide support for some of the markup used in RestructuredText documents of the stock Python documentation toolchain. RestructuredText is a document markup language with special human readable markup, that is widely spread in the Python world. RestructuredText documents are a bit like HTML but better readable. The text you are reading, for example, is written as ReST. See:: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html to learn more about ReST (and ``docutils``). Normally, ReST documents can be processed with tools of the Python package ``docutils``. The ``docutils`` include so-called readers, parsers, writers and publishers for reading ReST documents and writing various output formats like HTML, XML or LaTeX. Since Python switched from LaTeX to ReST documentation with the 2.6 version, some special markup was introduced like ``function``, ``seealso`` or ``versionchanged``, that helps to describe a programming API more precisely. These additional 'tags', however, needed specialized readers, parsers, writers and publishers to be understood. The normal docutils tools did not understand the new roles and directives. This package makes it possible to use the standard ``docutils`` parsers and writers with the additional roles and directives listed below. Prerequisites and requirements ------------------------------ - ``docutils`` -- version 0.9 is recommended. It can be retrieved from http://docutils.sourceforge.net/. - ``pygments`` -- a syntax highlighter. It can be retrieved from http://pygments.org/. This is only needed, if you want syntax highlighting of code fragments in your ReST documents. Because there is currently only support for HTML with pygments, you won't use it for other output formats. In this case you don't need pygments. Activate support for the additional set of roles/directives ----------------------------------------------------------- Just import the modules in this package:: import directives_plain import roles_plain import pygments_directive # for syntax-highlighting support That's it. The modules define and register the new roles and directives with the ``docutils`` automatically. You don't have to call a special function. Running the tests ----------------- Call ``tests/alltests.py`` with your favourite Python interpreter:: $ python tests/alltests.py Note, that ``docutils`` must be available in your PYTHON_PATH. Which roles and directives are supported: ----------------------------------------- ``pygments_directive`` adds the following new directives: - `sourcecode` -- a directive to highlight syntax of the following code block. It takes one parameter, the language, and currently only supports HTML output. Example:: .. sourcecode:: python class Cave(object): pass This will render the class definition with colours. An additional optional parameter is ``linenos``, which adds linenumbers to the code:: .. sourcecode:: python :linenos: class NumberedCave(object): pass will render the code block with line numbering. See the source for further options. - `code-block` -- an alias for `sourcecode`. ``directives_plain`` adds the follwing new directives: - `function` -- a directive to describe functions with their signature. - `data` -- ??? - `class` -- a directive to define a Python class. - `method` -- a directive to describe the method of a Python class. - `attribute` -- a directive to describe an attribute of a Python class. - `exception` -- a directive to describe an exception. - `cmdoption` -- a directive to describe a command option. - `envvar` -- a directive to describe an environment variable. - `describe` -- a directive to describe something. - `seealso` -- a directive to add a 'See also' subsection. It requires some 'body'-text. - `deprecated` -- a directive to add a deprecation warning. It also requires some explanatory body text and a version number. - `versionadded` -- a directive to add a note that tells, in which version the surrounding thing was added to the API. Requires a version number and an explanatory text. Example:: .. versionadded:: 0.11 Added for convenience reasons. - `versionchanged` -- a directive to add a note that tell, in which version a signature or something else changed and why. Example:: .. versionchanged:: 0.11 Added cave parameter, because every caveman needs a cave. - `toctree` -- a directive that requests to generate a table-of-contents tree of files, given in the body part of the directive. The so-called toc-tree will not be generated by standard writers, because it needs at least two parsing passes (one to collect all references, another pass to generate the reference targets). If you insert a toctree directive in a document, this will not block parsing of the document any more, but the toctree will be 'invisible' in rendered documents. The toctree directive supports a ``maxdepth`` parameter, a number, that tells, to which depth a toctree should be generated (default: no limit). Example:: .. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 chapter1.rst chapter2.rst another_file.rst This should render a table of contents with the headings of the three given files. Only headers of level 1 and 2 will be included in the toctree. ``roles_plain`` adds the following new roles: - `data` - `exc` - `func` - `class` - `const` - `attr` - `meth` - `cfunc` - `cdata` - `ctype` - `cmacro` - `mod` - `keyword` - `ref` - `token` - `term` - `file` - `samp` Every role can be used like this ::``. For example :func:`my_function` will output the text ``my_function``, rendered in a different way than normal text. The exact kind of rendering depends on the writer and translator that is used. In usual HTML writers it will be rendered with roman fonts. The same applies to all the other roles.