gh-69405: Add check for idle's help.html to CI

[StanFromIreland]

I expect it to fail till #143718 is merged.

I had to refactor copy_strip to a separate file to avoid having to build Python.

• Issue: Automate creation of idlelib/help.html from Doc/.../idle.html #69405

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📚 Documentation preview 📚: https://cpython-previews--143742.org.readthedocs.build/

🏃 Run preview 🏃: https://github.com/python/cpython/actions/runs/20930506392/job/60140508484?pr=143742

[StanFromIreland]

A downside of how I currently have it is that it need the entire docs job to finish (i.e. it includes waiting for the doc tests), we could have it run earlier by moving it under the docs job (though I don't think that is particularly nice), however since it runs in 7 seconds I think it is a negligible issue.

[StanFromIreland]

@webknjaz could you please take a peek at this?

[hugovk]

Should this new job also be required by "All required checks pass"?

https://github.com/python/cpython/actions/runs/20930506392?pr=143742

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A downside of how I currently have it is that it need the entire docs job to finish (i.e. it includes waiting for the doc tests), we could have it run earlier by moving it under the docs job (though I don't think that is particularly nice), however since it runs in 7 seconds I think it is a negligible issue.

The time isn't a problem, but there's quite a bit of extra complexity and config to achieve this, when it could be ~10 extra lines to add a couple of steps to the existing docs job.

[hugovk]

Could this stay in Lib/idlelib/help.py?

[StanFromIreland]

We would have to build CPython if we want to be able to modify it, that's not particularly fast?

[terryjreedy]

I don't understand the purported need to move copy_strip (and fairly strongly prefer not to). What is 'it'? I cannot imagine a need to modify the code just to check the file modification state.

I am not sure about adding a new make target. Currently, I update help.html (either in a .bat or manually) with
python -c "from idlelib.help import copy_strip; copy_strip()" in the repository, so that 'python' is the repository build and the update happens in the repository. I don't know if there is the equivalent for non-Windows, but copy pasting this command into command prompt is easier than changing directories and invoking make. I would personally prefer a reminder to run the above than to find make.

[StanFromIreland]

Should this new job also be required by "All required checks pass"?

Terry asked me to not make it required on the issue.

[terryjreedy]

This is getting messy, so lets back up. IDLE's objective is to make an offlline frozen copy of its doc available. At one time, the Windows installer installed propriety .chm files derived from the .html files. IDLE's F1 brought up the python .chm index. I believe that this was true at the time the IDLE doc display, using the help.html copy, was added.

Currently, the Windows installer installs the Doc/build/html tree beside python.exe and F1 displays index.html. Ditto for macOS, though the location is more obscure. In either case, Modules/idlelib displays idle.html. So on Windows and Mac, the local copy is not needed. I don't know what the situation is on Linux and *nix in general, but I have the impression that at least some distributions also include the docs with Python. So maybe we can make this issue moot.

EDIT: I could look for the F1 code to see what it does on *nix, but I need sleep.

[terryjreedy]

Is it the case that make can run Python with a file argument but not a -c "code" argument?

[terryjreedy]

It appears that rather than compare last change dates you are making a potentially revised file and looking for a non-empty diff (but not committing). The latter seems much harder. Is yaml unable to do the former?

[terryjreedy]

I don't understand the purported need to move copy_strip (and fairly strongly prefer not to). What is 'it'? I cannot imagine a need to modify the code just to check the file modification state.

I am not sure about adding a new make target. Currently, I update help.html (either in a .bat or manually) with
python -c "from idlelib.help import copy_strip; copy_strip()" in the repository, so that 'python' is the repository build and the update happens in the repository. I don't know if there is the equivalent for non-Windows, but copy pasting this command into command prompt is easier than changing directories and invoking make. I would personally prefer a reminder to run the above than to find make.

[bedevere-app]

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