python / python/peps

PEP 1: Replace/Update the "How to teach this" with "Documentation Updates"

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Description

I would like to suggest an update to the "How to teach this" section in PEPs to "Documentation Updates".

As part of proposing new features or changes, it would be great if PEP authors also take into consideration of what docs need to be produced/updated.

For example, would the PEP require changes to the how-to doc? Will there be new tutorial section written? What other areas of Python docs need to be updated to accommodate this new change? Are there existing docs that will become outdated and need changing? I think all of these should be taken into consideration when proposing changes so that we can have up to date documentation alongside the changes.

I think the "How to teach this" section meant to address this, but in practise I find the use of this section has been inconsistent, so I recommend making the section be more explicit about documentation artifacts to accompany the feature/change.

I also find some of the "How to teach this" in current PEPs sometimes are sounding can sound hypothetical. I'm seeing phrases like "Teachers could say so and so to students".

Instead of imagining what teachers could say, I think it would be more helpful to come up with concrete plan of what documentation can be produced to assist users in learning and adopting the feature/change.

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the PEP template or guidance that defines the “How to teach this” section. Update it to use “Documentation Updates” and provide concrete prompts for documenting features or changes, then check current PEP usage for consistency.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
50/100

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