[IPython-user] Re: Re: exception with help()

[Fernando Perez]

Thorsten Kampe wrote:

> What about the last line of the traceback "OSError: [Errno 11]
> Resource temporarily unavailable"? Seems to be a Python error for me.
> Which resource is Python/IPython trying to access and what does it
> mean "temporarily unavailable"? Does the Python shell use another
> "resource" than IPython?

I looked at the traceback in more detail, and as far as I can see, all of the 
calls causing the exception are in the pydoc.py code, triggered by the 
original help __call__() in site.py.  This is all code from the python 
standard library, not in ipython itself.  So I'm starting to wonder if somehow 
ipython's use of the help() facilities in python is triggering a bug in python 
2.3.  I know that pydoc has changed significantly in 2.3, because I got 
another seprate problem report related to pydoc which doesn't occur in 2.2.

I normally work in 2.2 and my laptop doesn't have 2.3 (though my office 
machine does), so I hadn't noticed any of this myself.

Note that I'm not saying necessarily that it's a python bug for certain, all I 
know is that ipython may be interacting with 2.3's pydoc in ways which are 
invalid, but which used to work with 2.2.

>>My  help for Windows users always tends to fall way short,
>>unfortunately.
> 
> 
> No need for an insult. I rarely use Windows - I use Cygwin.

Huh?  Exactly who do you accuse me of insulting?  I simply stated a fact: for 
me it's difficult to provide good support for Windows users, because I don't 
use the platform myself, and often Windows-related problems go unsolved.  I 
regret it, but it's a reality.

Fernando.