[PyQt] PYQt and C++ documentation

[Phil Thompson]

On 16 Dec 2016, at 10:36 pm, Baz Walter <bazwal at ftml.net> wrote:
> 
> On 16/12/16 19:15, Simon, Stuart A. wrote:
>> Hello: My name is Stuart Simon. I am new to PyQt and want to point
>> out something I don't quite understand about the documentation. A lot
>> of it is merely cross-linked to C++ documentation. What is not clear
>> to me is if PyQt generally implements the same properties, methods,
>> and classes as C++ Qt, or if the documentation is very incomplete. If
>> the plan is to document only what is different from C++, then that
>> needs to be stated clearly in the documentation.
> 
> I assume you must be referring to the PyQt5 docs. The situation is much clearer for the PyQt4 docs, because it has a more or less complete class reference:
> 
>    http://pyqt.sourceforge.net/Docs/PyQt4/classes.html
> 
> Although this mostly reproduces what is in the Qt docs, its one major advantage over the PyQt5 docs is that it provides proper Python signatures for nearly everything. In addition, it removes most of the stuff that's specific to the C++ APIs - so it should correspond pretty well with what you can discover by experimenting in a Python interpreter session. It must be said though, that it's by no means perfect (which is hardly surprising, given that it's probably all  generated automatically).
> 
> I mostly agree with what others have said about learning to work with the Qt docs (which are generally excellent, even for those don't know C++ very well). But I still think that PyQt should provide a complete Python-specific API Reference if it can. All that's needed is something very much like the current PyQt4 Class Reference, only without all the redundant explanatory material (links to the current Qt docs would actually work much better). This would make the task of translating between the two APIs a great deal easier - a PyQt Rosetta Stone, if you like. Maybe this is something that the type-hinting support will eventually make possible?

Yes, that's the plan. I intend to take the documentation (and probably the examples) out of PyQt5 and make them a separate package so that they can have more frequent releases.

Phil