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authorAntoine Pitrou <solipsis@pitrou.net>2010-12-12 21:07:49 (GMT)
committerAntoine Pitrou <solipsis@pitrou.net>2010-12-12 21:07:49 (GMT)
commita92d1f5041bac091435f1537be5cf216ae52f79b (patch)
tree750635b856b1b69cbafb40c26ea713715aaa282f /Doc
parent0101a3a827eafb5e0178f4ea402cfd8abf97ab5c (diff)
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Merged revisions 87188-87190,87192-87194 via svnmerge from
svn+ssh://pythondev@svn.python.org/python/branches/py3k ........ r87188 | antoine.pitrou | 2010-12-12 19:25:25 +0100 (dim., 12 déc. 2010) | 3 lines Make this a warning and fix indentation ........ r87189 | antoine.pitrou | 2010-12-12 20:59:47 +0100 (dim., 12 déc. 2010) | 3 lines Better explain the buffer interface (hopefully) ........ r87190 | antoine.pitrou | 2010-12-12 21:01:43 +0100 (dim., 12 déc. 2010) | 3 lines Add link to the buffer protocol description from the memory description. ........ r87192 | antoine.pitrou | 2010-12-12 21:09:18 +0100 (dim., 12 déc. 2010) | 3 lines Remove redundant sentence, and fix markup ........ r87193 | antoine.pitrou | 2010-12-12 21:13:31 +0100 (dim., 12 déc. 2010) | 3 lines Fix heading level ........ r87194 | antoine.pitrou | 2010-12-12 21:17:29 +0100 (dim., 12 déc. 2010) | 3 lines Consistent ordering of availability statements ........
Diffstat (limited to 'Doc')
-rw-r--r--Doc/c-api/buffer.rst40
-rw-r--r--Doc/c-api/typeobj.rst2
-rw-r--r--Doc/library/os.path.rst2
-rw-r--r--Doc/library/stdtypes.rst17
-rw-r--r--Doc/library/test.rst12
5 files changed, 40 insertions, 33 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/c-api/buffer.rst b/Doc/c-api/buffer.rst
index ad6e3937..e6eff84 100644
--- a/Doc/c-api/buffer.rst
+++ b/Doc/c-api/buffer.rst
@@ -12,16 +12,32 @@ Buffer Protocol
.. index::
single: buffer interface
-Python objects implemented in C can export a "buffer interface." These
-functions can be used by an object to expose its data in a raw, byte-oriented
-format. Clients of the object can use the buffer interface to access the
-object data directly, without needing to copy it first.
+Certain objects available in Python wrap access to an underlying memory
+array or *buffer*. Such objects include the built-in :class:`bytes` and
+:class:`bytearray`, and some extension types like :class:`array.array`.
+Third-party libraries may define their own types for special purposes, such
+as image processing or numeric analysis.
-Examples of objects that support the buffer interface are :class:`bytes`,
-:class:`bytearray` and :class:`array.array`. The bytes and bytearray objects
-exposes their bytes contents in the buffer interface's byte-oriented form.
-An :class:`array.array` can also expose its contents, but it should be noted
-that array elements may be multi-byte values.
+While each of these types have their own semantics, they share the common
+characteristic of being backed by a possibly large memory buffer. It is
+then desireable, in some situations, to access that buffer directly and
+without intermediate copying.
+
+Python provides such a facility at the C level in the form of the *buffer
+protocol*. This protocol has two sides:
+
+.. index:: single: PyBufferProcs
+
+- on the producer side, a type can export a "buffer interface" which allows
+ objects of that type to expose information about their underlying buffer.
+ This interface is described in the section :ref:`buffer-structs`;
+
+- on the consumer side, several means are available to obtain a pointer to
+ the raw underlying data of an object (for example a method parameter).
+
+Simple objects such as :class:`bytes` and :class:`bytearray` expose their
+underlying buffer in byte-oriented form. Other forms are possible; for example,
+the elements exposed by a :class:`array.array` can be multi-byte values.
An example consumer of the buffer interface is the :meth:`~io.BufferedIOBase.write`
method of file objects: any object that can export a series of bytes through
@@ -44,12 +60,6 @@ isn't needed anymore. Failure to do so could lead to various issues such as
resource leaks.
-.. index:: single: PyBufferProcs
-
-How the buffer interface is exposed by a type object is described in the
-section :ref:`buffer-structs`, under the description for :ctype:`PyBufferProcs`.
-
-
The buffer structure
====================
diff --git a/Doc/c-api/typeobj.rst b/Doc/c-api/typeobj.rst
index eb8a83e..ab55292 100644
--- a/Doc/c-api/typeobj.rst
+++ b/Doc/c-api/typeobj.rst
@@ -1193,7 +1193,7 @@ Buffer Object Structures
.. sectionauthor:: Benjamin Peterson
-The buffer interface exports a model where an object can expose its internal
+The :ref:`buffer interface <bufferobjects>` exports a model where an object can expose its internal
data.
If an object does not export the buffer interface, then its :attr:`tp_as_buffer`
diff --git a/Doc/library/os.path.rst b/Doc/library/os.path.rst
index fdc45b9..28a7aff 100644
--- a/Doc/library/os.path.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/os.path.rst
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ applications should use string objects to access all files.
*start* defaults to :attr:`os.curdir`.
- Availability: Windows, Unix.
+ Availability: Unix, Windows.
.. function:: samefile(path1, path2)
diff --git a/Doc/library/stdtypes.rst b/Doc/library/stdtypes.rst
index 4b7ae39..f2563dd 100644
--- a/Doc/library/stdtypes.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/stdtypes.rst
@@ -2081,9 +2081,9 @@ An example of dictionary view usage::
memoryview Types
================
-:class:`memoryview`\s allow Python code to access the internal data of an object
-that supports the buffer protocol without copying. Memory can be interpreted as
-simple bytes or complex data structures.
+:class:`memoryview` objects allow Python code to access the internal data
+of an object that supports the :ref:`buffer protocol <bufferobjects>` without
+copying. Memory is generally interpreted as simple bytes.
.. class:: memoryview(obj)
@@ -2203,12 +2203,9 @@ Context Manager Types
single: protocol; context management
Python's :keyword:`with` statement supports the concept of a runtime context
-defined by a context manager. This is implemented using two separate methods
+defined by a context manager. This is implemented using a pair of methods
that allow user-defined classes to define a runtime context that is entered
-before the statement body is executed and exited when the statement ends.
-
-The :dfn:`context management protocol` consists of a pair of methods that need
-to be provided for a context manager object to define a runtime context:
+before the statement body is executed and exited when the statement ends:
.. method:: contextmanager.__enter__()
@@ -2256,9 +2253,9 @@ decimal arithmetic context. The specific types are not treated specially beyond
their implementation of the context management protocol. See the
:mod:`contextlib` module for some examples.
-Python's :term:`generator`\s and the ``contextlib.contextmanager`` :term:`decorator`
+Python's :term:`generator`\s and the :class:`contextlib.contextmanager` decorator
provide a convenient way to implement these protocols. If a generator function is
-decorated with the ``contextlib.contextmanager`` decorator, it will return a
+decorated with the :class:`contextlib.contextmanager` decorator, it will return a
context manager implementing the necessary :meth:`__enter__` and
:meth:`__exit__` methods, rather than the iterator produced by an undecorated
generator function.
diff --git a/Doc/library/test.rst b/Doc/library/test.rst
index 0b16109..ecb2e5c 100644
--- a/Doc/library/test.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/test.rst
@@ -5,12 +5,12 @@
:synopsis: Regression tests package containing the testing suite for Python.
.. sectionauthor:: Brett Cannon <brett@python.org>
-.. note::
- The :mod:`test` package is meant for internal use by Python only. It is
- documented for the benefit of the core developers of Python. Any use of
- this package outside of Python's standard library is discouraged as code
- mentioned here can change or be removed without notice between releases of
- Python.
+.. warning::
+ The :mod:`test` package is meant for internal use by Python only. It is
+ documented for the benefit of the core developers of Python. Any use of
+ this package outside of Python's standard library is discouraged as code
+ mentioned here can change or be removed without notice between releases of
+ Python.
The :mod:`test` package contains all regression tests for Python as well as the