[Python-talk] Was Re: Opinions on "Python Essential Reference Now: How do you find function x if you don't know what x is...

[Bruce Labitt]

Kent Johnson wrote:
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 8:29 PM, Bruce Labitt 
> <bruce.labitt at myfairpoint.net <mailto:bruce.labitt at myfairpoint.net>> 
> wrote:
>
>     Anyone have this book?  Any good?  Worth adding to my personal
>     library?
>
>
> I have it, don't use it. I don't find it adds enough to the official 
> docs to be useful. A handful of bookmarks and a Firefox "Quick Search" 
> that lets me go direct to the docs for any module is most of the docs 
> I need.
>
> (Quick Search - make a bookmark in the Quick Searches folder with the 
> location
> http://docs.python.org/library/%s.html
>
> Give the bookmark the keyword 'py' or whatever. Then typing 'py 
> urllib' in the address bar goes right to the docs for urllib.)
>  
>
Here is a general question.  How does one find in the python world 
functions that have been written besides google?  I guess it is an 
existence type question, how does one figure out if function (or method) 
x is in module y?  Especially when one doesn't know the name x (or how 
to spell it).  Is there a good place to browse python functions?  
Usually the problem is you know you need to do a function 'something', 
but you don't know what someone else has already called it. How does one 
find that 'something'?

-Bruce