Pdoc

Dev tools

api documentation generator

SHOW HN2021

45points
18comments
#910of 2,533 in 2021
Top 36%of 2021 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

2 positive, 4 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 2 critical, out of 9 comments about the project. Thread score 0.00.

Execution: 1 for, 1 againstIdea: 1 for, 0 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Looks simpler than Sphinx

    From 2 comments
    • Looks simpler than Sphinx. I may give it a try
      Evidlo on HN
    • I recently tried to use pdoc on a system that can never have internet connectivity. Looks like pdoc implicitly expects internet connectivity because it wants to get at a bunch of…
      euler_angles on HN
  • Standalone HTML output and modern Python 3 features

    From 2 comments
    • I hadn't heard of this and it looks great. But then I also came across pdocs[0]. Other than the 3rd bullet which looks outdated, how does the rest of the comparison[1] hold up?…
      kingosticks on HN
    • pdoc produces completely standalone HTML files with no dependencies and no JS. Even the collapsible navigation on small screen sizes is implemented in CSS only. Take a look…
      mhils on HN

Objections

  • Requires Python 3.8 or later, which was a blocker for some users

    From 1 comment
    • The python >3.8 requirement broke the use case for me. I know that there is support for creating API's on python 3.5+. It's just not worth it to upgrade to 3.8 to create docs and…
      jquaint on HN
  • Output depended on internet access for resources, though the maker says it is fully standalone

    From 2 comments
    • I recently tried to use pdoc on a system that can never have internet connectivity. Looks like pdoc implicitly expects internet connectivity because it wants to get at a bunch of…
      euler_angles on HN
    • pdoc produces completely standalone HTML files with no dependencies and no JS. Even the collapsible navigation on small screen sizes is implemented in CSS only. Take a look…
      mhils on HN
  • Only HTML output, no Markdown output

    From 1 comment
    • pdocs is what a friendly fork looks like, happy to see it. :) I've sent an email to Timothy a few days ago, I'd be more than happy to eventually join forces. We also invited the…
      mhils on HN

Requests

  • JSON output format

    From 1 comment
    • This looks great! Do you have plans on producing JSON output in addition to HTML output? I have a larger custom website in which I need to embed my Python documentation in. I…
      sthupukari on HN
  • Markdown output and integration with mkdocs

    From 2 comments
    • This is really awesome thanks for sharing. And it even supports markdown by default, fantastic! Some questions: - is it possible to include a folder with md files in the output?…
      woile on HN
    • Are you interested in adding support for Markdown output? We're using pdocs specifically so that we can integrate it inside mkdocs output. Example API docs from pdocs, rendered…
      kylebarron on HN
  • Support for # or ## comment-style docs

    From 1 comment
    • This is really awesome thanks for sharing. And it even supports markdown by default, fantastic! Some questions: - is it possible to include a folder with md files in the output?…
      woile on HN

Questions

  • Can it include a folder of markdown files in the output?

    From 1 comment
    • This is really awesome thanks for sharing. And it even supports markdown by default, fantastic! Some questions: - is it possible to include a folder with md files in the output?…
      woile on HN
  • Will Python 3.7 be supported?

    From 1 comment
    • The python >3.8 requirement broke the use case for me. I know that there is support for creating API's on python 3.5+. It's just not worth it to upgrade to 3.8 to create docs and…
      jquaint on HN

Alternatives named

  • Sphinx

    From 2 comments
    • > integrating your API documentation into the rest of your website/docs is definitely something that I have on the radar I think that Sphinx and mkdocs are the two most popular…
      kylebarron on HN
    • Looks simpler than Sphinx. I may give it a try
      Evidlo on HN
  • pdocs

    From 1 comment
    • I hadn't heard of this and it looks great. But then I also came across pdocs[0]. Other than the 3rd bullet which looks outdated, how does the rest of the comparison[1] hold up?…
      kingosticks on HN
  • mkdocs with mkautodoc plugin

    From 1 comment
    • Mkdocs has a plugin to generate apidocs as well https://github.com/tomchristie/mkautodoc
      woile on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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