Doc/lib/libundoc.tex

   1 \chapter{Undocumented Modules \label{undoc}}
   2
   3 Here's a quick listing of modules that are currently undocumented, but
   4 that should be documented.  Feel free to contribute documentation for
   5 them!  (Send via email to \email{docs@python.org}.)
   6
   7 The idea and original contents for this chapter were taken
   8 from a posting by Fredrik Lundh; the specific contents of this chapter
   9 have been substantially revised.
  10
  11
  12 \section{Frameworks}
  13
  14 Frameworks tend to be harder to document, but are well worth the
  15 effort spent.
  16
  17 \begin{description}
  18 \item None at this time.
  19 \end{description}
  20
  21
  22 \section{Miscellaneous useful utilities}
  23
  24 Some of these are very old and/or not very robust; marked with ``hmm.''
  25
  26 \begin{description}
  27 \item[\module{bdb}]
  28 --- A generic Python debugger base class (used by pdb).
  29
  30 \item[\module{ihooks}]
  31 --- Import hook support (for \refmodule{rexec}; may become obsolete).
  32 \end{description}
  33
  34
  35
  36 \section{Platform specific modules}
  37
  38 These modules are used to implement the \refmodule{os.path} module,
  39 and are not documented beyond this mention.  There's little need to
  40 document these.
  41
  42 \begin{description}
  43 \item[\module{ntpath}]
  44 --- Implementation of \module{os.path} on Win32, Win64, WinCE, and
  45     OS/2 platforms.
  46
  47 \item[\module{posixpath}]
  48 --- Implementation of \module{os.path} on \POSIX.
  49
  50 \item[\module{bsddb185}]
  51 --- Backwards compatibility module for systems which still use the Berkeley
  52     DB 1.85 module.  It is normally only available on certain BSD \UNIX-based
  53     systems.  It should never be used directly.
  54 \end{description}
  55
  56
  57 \section{Multimedia}
  58
  59 \begin{description}
  60 \item[\module{audiodev}]
  61 --- Platform-independent API for playing audio data.
  62
  63 \item[\module{linuxaudiodev}]
  64 --- Play audio data on the Linux audio device.  Replaced in Python 2.3
  65     by the \module{ossaudiodev} module.
  66
  67 \item[\module{sunaudio}]
  68 --- Interpret Sun audio headers (may become obsolete or a tool/demo).
  69
  70 \item[\module{toaiff}]
  71 --- Convert "arbitrary" sound files to AIFF files; should probably
  72     become a tool or demo.  Requires the external program \program{sox}.
  73 \end{description}
  74
  75
  76 \section{Obsolete \label{obsolete-modules}}
  77
  78 These modules are not normally available for import; additional work
  79 must be done to make them available.
  80
  81 %%% lib-old is empty as of Python 2.5
  82 % Those which are written in Python will be installed into the directory
  83 % \file{lib-old/} installed as part of the standard library.  To use
  84 % these, the directory must be added to \code{sys.path}, possibly using
  85 % \envvar{PYTHONPATH}.
  86
  87 These extension modules written in C are not built by default.
  88 Under \UNIX, these must be enabled by uncommenting the appropriate
  89 lines in \file{Modules/Setup} in the build tree and either rebuilding
  90 Python if the modules are statically linked, or building and
  91 installing the shared object if using dynamically-loaded extensions.
  92
  93 % XXX need Windows instructions!
  94
  95 \begin{description}
  96 \item[\module{timing}]
  97 --- Measure time intervals to high resolution (use \function{time.clock()}
  98     instead).
  99 \end{description}
 100
 101 \section{SGI-specific Extension modules}
 102
 103 The following are SGI specific, and may be out of touch with the
 104 current version of reality.
 105
 106 \begin{description}
 107 \item[\module{cl}]
 108 --- Interface to the SGI compression library.
 109
 110 \item[\module{sv}]
 111 --- Interface to the ``simple video'' board on SGI Indigo
 112     (obsolete hardware).
 113 \end{description}