4. Document Classes

Two L^ATEX document classes are defined specifically for use with the Python documentation. The manual class is for large documents which are sectioned into chapters, and the howto class is for smaller documents.

The manual documents are larger and are used for most of the standard documents. This document class is based on the standard L^ATEX report class and is formatted very much like a long technical report. The Python Reference Manual is a good example of a manual document, and the Python Library Reference is a large example.

The howto documents are shorter, and don't have the large structure of the manual documents. This class is based on the standard L^ATEX article class and is formatted somewhat like the Linux Documentation Project's ``HOWTO'' series as done originally using the LinuxDoc software. The original intent for the document class was that it serve a similar role as the LDP's HOWTO series, but the applicability of the class turns out to be somewhat more broad. This class is used for ``how-to'' documents (this document is an example) and for shorter reference manuals for small, fairly cohesive module libraries. Examples of the later use include the standard Macintosh Library Modules and Using Kerberos from Python, which contains reference material for an extension package. These documents are roughly equivalent to a single chapter from a larger work.