Re: [PATCH 1/2] Documentation: sphinx: Add sphinx-prompt

From: Jonathan Corbet
Date: Fri Aug 25 2023 - 18:47:05 EST


Nishanth Menon <nm@xxxxxx> writes:

> Sphinx-prompt[1] helps bring-in '.. prompt::' option that allows a
> better rendered documentation, yet be able to copy paste without
> picking up the prompt from the rendered documentation.
>
> [1] https://pypi.org/project/sphinx-prompt/
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/87fs48rgto.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxx/
> Suggested-by: Mattijs Korpershoek <mkorpershoek@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Suggested-by: Heinrich Schuchardt <heinrich.schuchardt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Nishanth Menon <nm@xxxxxx>
> ---
> I would have added Reported-by for Simon, since he reported the issue in
> the first place.. but it was for the u-boot documentation, so skipping
> here.
>
> Documentation/conf.py | 2 +-
> Documentation/sphinx/requirements.txt | 1 +
> 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

So it would sure be nice for the changelog to say what this actually
does.

This appears to add a build dependency for the docs; we can't just add
that without updating the documentation, adjusting
scripts/sphinx-pre-install, and so on.

But, beyond that, this extension goes entirely counter to the idea that
the plain-text files are the primary form of documentation; it adds
clutter and makes those files less readable. We can do that when the
benefit is sufficient, but I'm pretty far from convinced that this is
the case here. Certainly the case hasn't been made in the changelog.
What *is* the benefit of making this change?

Thanks,

jon