Issue #16893: Replace help.txt with idle.html for Idle doc display.

The new idlelib/idle.html is copied from Doc/build/html/idle.html.
It looks better than help.txt and will better document Idle as released.
The tkinter html viewer that works for this file was written by Rose Roseman.
The new code is in idlelib/help.py, a new file for help menu classes.
The now unused EditorWindow.HelpDialog class and helt.txt file are deprecated.

Lib/idlelib/EditorWindow.py

@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ from idlelib import PyParse
 from idlelib.configHandler import idleConf
 from idlelib import aboutDialog, textView, configDialog
 from idlelib import macosxSupport
+from idlelib import help
 
 # The default tab setting for a Text widget, in average-width characters.
 TK_TABWIDTH_DEFAULT = 8
@@ -42,6 +43,11 @@ def _sphinx_version():
 class HelpDialog(object):
 
     def __init__(self):
+        import warnings as w
+        w.warn("EditorWindow.HelpDialog is no longer used by Idle.\n"
+               "It will be removed in 3.6 or later.\n"
+               "It has been replaced by private help.HelpWindow\n",
+               DeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2)
         self.parent = None      # parent of help window
         self.dlg = None         # the help window iteself
 
@@ -539,11 +545,13 @@ class EditorWindow(object):
         configDialog.ConfigExtensionsDialog(self.top)
 
     def help_dialog(self, event=None):
+        "Handle help doc event."
+        # edit maxosxSupport.overrideRootMenu.help_dialog to match
         if self.root:
             parent = self.root
         else:
             parent = self.top
-        helpDialog.display(parent, near=self.top)
+        help.show_idlehelp(parent)
 
     def python_docs(self, event=None):
         if sys.platform[:3] == 'win':
@@ -1716,4 +1724,4 @@ def _editor_window(parent):  # htest #
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     from idlelib.idle_test.htest import run
-    run(_help_dialog, _editor_window)
+    run(_editor_window)

Lib/idlelib/help.py

+"""
+help.py implements the Idle help menu and is subject to change.
+
+The contents are subject to revision at any time, without notice.
+
+Help => About IDLE: diplay About Idle dialog
+
+<to be moved here from aboutDialog.py>
+
+Help => IDLE Help: display idle.html with proper formatting
+
+HelpParser - Parses idle.html generated from idle.rst by Sphinx
+and renders to tk Text.
+
+HelpText - Displays formatted idle.html.
+
+HelpFrame - Contains text, scrollbar, and table-of-contents.
+(This will be needed for display in a future tabbed window.)
+
+HelpWindow - Display idleframe in a standalone window.
+
+show_idlehelp - Create HelpWindow.  Called in EditorWindow.help_dialog.
+"""
+from html.parser import HTMLParser
+from os.path import abspath, dirname, isdir, isfile, join
+from tkinter import Tk, Toplevel, Frame, Text, Scrollbar, Menu, Menubutton
+from tkinter import font as tkfont
+
+use_ttk = False # until available to import
+if use_ttk:
+    from tkinter.ttk import Menubutton
+
+## About IDLE ##
+
+
+## IDLE Help ##
+
+class HelpParser(HTMLParser):
+    """Render idle.html generated by Sphinx from idle.rst.
+
+    The overridden handle_xyz methods handle a subset of html tags.
+    The supplied text should have the needed tag configurations.
+    The behavior for unsupported tags, such as table, is undefined.
+    """
+    def __init__(self, text):
+        HTMLParser.__init__(self, convert_charrefs=True)
+        self.text = text         # text widget we're rendering into
+        self.tags = ''           # current text tags to apply
+        self.show = False        # used so we exclude page navigation
+        self.hdrlink = False     # used so we don't show header links
+        self.level = 0           # indentation level
+        self.pre = False         # displaying preformatted text
+        self.hprefix = ''        # strip e.g. '25.5' from headings
+        self.nested_dl = False   # if we're in a nested <dl>
+        self.simplelist = False  # simple list (no double spacing)
+        self.tocid = 1           # id for table of contents entries
+        self.contents = []       # map toc ids to section titles
+        self.data = ''           # to record data within header tags for toc
+
+    def indent(self, amt=1):
+        self.level += amt
+        self.tags = '' if self.level == 0 else 'l'+str(self.level)
+
+    def handle_starttag(self, tag, attrs):
+        "Handle starttags in idle.html."
+        class_ = ''
+        for a, v in attrs:
+            if a == 'class':
+                class_ = v
+        s = ''
+        if tag == 'div' and class_ == 'section':
+            self.show = True    # start of main content
+        elif tag == 'div' and class_ == 'sphinxsidebar':
+            self.show = False   # end of main content
+        elif tag == 'p' and class_ != 'first':
+            s = '\n\n'
+        elif tag == 'span' and class_ == 'pre':
+            self.tags = 'pre'
+        elif tag == 'span' and class_ == 'versionmodified':
+            self.tags = 'em'
+        elif tag == 'em':
+            self.tags = 'em'
+        elif tag in ['ul', 'ol']:
+            if class_.find('simple') != -1:
+                s = '\n'
+                self.simplelist = True
+            else:
+                self.simplelist = False
+            self.indent()
+        elif tag == 'dl':
+            if self.level > 0:
+                self.nested_dl = True
+        elif tag == 'li':
+            s = '\n* ' if self.simplelist else '\n\n* '
+        elif tag == 'dt':
+            s = '\n\n' if not self.nested_dl else '\n'  # avoid extra line
+            self.nested_dl = False
+        elif tag == 'dd':
+            self.indent()
+            s = '\n'
+        elif tag == 'pre':
+            self.pre = True
+            if self.show:
+                self.text.insert('end', '\n\n')
+            self.tags = 'preblock'
+        elif tag == 'a' and class_ == 'headerlink':
+            self.hdrlink = True
+        elif tag == 'h1':
+            self.text.mark_set('toc'+str(self.tocid),
+                            self.text.index('end-1line'))
+            self.tags = tag
+        elif tag in ['h2', 'h3']:
+            if self.show:
+                self.data = ''
+                self.text.mark_set('toc'+str(self.tocid),
+                                self.text.index('end-1line'))
+                self.text.insert('end', '\n\n')
+            self.tags = tag
+        if self.show:
+            self.text.insert('end', s, self.tags)
+
+    def handle_endtag(self, tag):
+        "Handle endtags in idle.html."
+        if tag in ['h1', 'h2', 'h3', 'span', 'em']:
+            self.indent(0)  # clear tag, reset indent
+            if self.show and tag in ['h1', 'h2', 'h3']:
+                title = self.data
+                self.contents.append(('toc'+str(self.tocid), title))
+                self.tocid += 1
+        elif tag == 'a':
+            self.hdrlink = False
+        elif tag == 'pre':
+            self.pre = False
+            self.tags = ''
+        elif tag in ['ul', 'dd', 'ol']:
+            self.indent(amt=-1)
+
+    def handle_data(self, data):
+        "Handle date segments in idle.html."
+        if self.show and not self.hdrlink:
+            d = data if self.pre else data.replace('\n', ' ')
+            if self.tags == 'h1':
+                self.hprefix = d[0:d.index(' ')]
+            if self.tags in ['h1', 'h2', 'h3'] and self.hprefix != '':
+                if d[0:len(self.hprefix)] == self.hprefix:
+                    d = d[len(self.hprefix):].strip()
+                self.data += d
+            self.text.insert('end', d, self.tags)
+
+
+class HelpText(Text):
+    "Display idle.html."
+    def __init__(self, parent, filename):
+        "Configure tags and feed file to parser."
+        Text.__init__(self, parent, wrap='word', highlightthickness=0,
+                      padx=5, borderwidth=0)
+
+        normalfont = self.findfont(['TkDefaultFont', 'arial', 'helvetica'])
+        fixedfont = self.findfont(['TkFixedFont', 'monaco', 'courier'])
+        self['font'] = (normalfont, 12)
+        self.tag_configure('em', font=(normalfont, 12, 'italic'))
+        self.tag_configure('h1', font=(normalfont, 20, 'bold'))
+        self.tag_configure('h2', font=(normalfont, 18, 'bold'))
+        self.tag_configure('h3', font=(normalfont, 15, 'bold'))
+        self.tag_configure('pre', font=(fixedfont, 12))
+        self.tag_configure('preblock', font=(fixedfont, 10), lmargin1=25,
+                borderwidth=1, relief='solid', background='#eeffcc')
+        self.tag_configure('l1', lmargin1=25, lmargin2=25)
+        self.tag_configure('l2', lmargin1=50, lmargin2=50)
+        self.tag_configure('l3', lmargin1=75, lmargin2=75)
+        self.tag_configure('l4', lmargin1=100, lmargin2=100)
+
+        self.parser = HelpParser(self)
+        with open(filename, encoding='utf-8') as f:
+            contents = f.read()
+        self.parser.feed(contents)
+        self['state'] = 'disabled'
+
+    def findfont(self, names):
+        "Return name of first font family derived from names."
+        for name in names:
+            if name.lower() in (x.lower() for x in tkfont.names(root=self)):
+                font = tkfont.Font(name=name, exists=True, root=self)
+                return font.actual()['family']
+            elif name.lower() in (x.lower()
+                                  for x in tkfont.families(root=self)):
+                return name
+
+
+class HelpFrame(Frame):
+    def __init__(self, parent, filename):
+        Frame.__init__(self, parent)
+        text = HelpText(self, filename)
+        self['background'] = text['background']
+        scroll = Scrollbar(self, command=text.yview)
+        text['yscrollcommand'] = scroll.set
+        text.grid(column=1, row=0, sticky='nsew')
+        scroll.grid(column=2, row=0, sticky='ns')
+        self.grid_columnconfigure(1, weight=1)
+        self.grid_rowconfigure(0, weight=1)
+        toc = self.contents_widget(text)
+        toc.grid(column=0, row=0, sticky='nw')
+
+    def contents_widget(self, text):
+        toc = Menubutton(self, text='TOC')
+        drop = Menu(toc, tearoff=False)
+        for tag, lbl in text.parser.contents:
+            drop.add_command(label=lbl, command=lambda mark=tag:text.see(mark))
+        toc['menu'] = drop
+        return toc
+
+
+class HelpWindow(Toplevel):
+
+    def __init__(self, parent, filename, title):
+        Toplevel.__init__(self, parent)
+        self.wm_title(title)
+        self.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", self.destroy)
+        HelpFrame(self, filename).grid(column=0, row=0, sticky='nsew')
+        self.grid_columnconfigure(0, weight=1)
+        self.grid_rowconfigure(0, weight=1)
+
+
+def show_idlehelp(parent):
+    filename = join(abspath(dirname(__file__)), 'idle.html')
+    if not isfile(filename):
+        dirpath = join(abspath(dirname(dirname(dirname(__file__)))),
+                   'Doc', 'build', 'html', 'library')
+    HelpWindow(parent, filename, 'IDLE Help')
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    from idlelib.idle_test.htest import run
+    run(show_idlehelp)

Lib/idlelib/help.txt

+This file, idlelib/help.txt is out-of-date and no longer used by Idle.
+It is deprecated and will be removed in the future, possibly in 3.6
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
 [See the end of this file for ** TIPS ** on using IDLE !!]
 
 IDLE is the Python IDE built with the tkinter GUI toolkit.

Lib/idlelib/idle_test/htest.py

@@ -194,13 +194,6 @@ _grep_dialog_spec = {
            "should open that file \nin a new EditorWindow."
     }
 
-_help_dialog_spec = {
-    'file': 'EditorWindow',
-    'kwds': {},
-    'msg': "If the help text displays, this works.\n"
-           "Text is selectable. Window is scrollable."
-    }
-
 _io_binding_spec = {
     'file': 'IOBinding',
     'kwds': {},
@@ -279,6 +272,13 @@ _scrolled_list_spec = {
            "Right clicking an item will display a popup."
     }
 
+show_idlehelp_spec = {
+    'file': 'help',
+    'kwds': {},
+    'msg': "If the help text displays, this works.\n"
+           "Text is selectable. Window is scrollable."
+    }
+
 _stack_viewer_spec = {
     'file': 'StackViewer',
     'kwds': {},

Lib/idlelib/macosxSupport.py

@@ -174,9 +174,8 @@ def overrideRootMenu(root, flist):
         configDialog.ConfigDialog(root, 'Settings')
 
     def help_dialog(event=None):
-        from idlelib import textView
-        fn = path.join(path.abspath(path.dirname(__file__)), 'help.txt')
-        textView.view_file(root, 'Help', fn)
+        from idlelib import help
+        help.show_idlehelp(root)
 
     root.bind('<<about-idle>>', about_dialog)
     root.bind('<<open-config-dialog>>', config_dialog)