Beginning of new Sphinx tutorial

doc/_templates/index.html

@@ -52,23 +52,25 @@ <h2 style="margin-bottom: 0">{%trans%}Documentation{%endtrans%}</h2>
         <p class="biglink"><a class="biglink" href="{{ pathto("usage/quickstart") }}">{%trans%}First steps with Sphinx{%endtrans%}</a><br/>
            <span class="linkdescr">{%trans%}overview of basic tasks{%endtrans%}</span></p>
       </td><td>
-        {%- if hasdoc('search') %}<p class="biglink"><a class="biglink" href="{{ pathto("search") }}">{%trans%}Search page{%endtrans%}</a><br/>
-           <span class="linkdescr">{%trans%}search the documentation{%endtrans%}</span></p>{%- endif %}
+        <p class="biglink"><a class="biglink" href="{{ pathto("tutorial/index") }}">{%trans%}Tutorial{%endtrans%}</a><br/>
+           <span class="linkdescr">{%trans%}beginners tutorial{%endtrans%}</span></p>
       </td>
     </tr><tr>
       <td>
         <p class="biglink"><a class="biglink" href="{{ pathto("contents") }}">{%trans%}Contents{%endtrans%}</a><br/>
            <span class="linkdescr">{%trans%}for a complete overview{%endtrans%}</span></p>
       </td><td>
-        {%- if hasdoc('genindex') %}<p class="biglink"><a class="biglink" href="{{ pathto("genindex") }}">{%trans%}General Index{%endtrans%}</a><br/>
-           <span class="linkdescr">{%trans%}all functions, classes, terms{%endtrans%}</span></p>{%- endif %}
+        {%- if hasdoc('search') %}<p class="biglink"><a class="biglink" href="{{ pathto("search") }}">{%trans%}Search page{%endtrans%}</a><br/>
+           <span class="linkdescr">{%trans%}search the documentation{%endtrans%}</span></p>{%- endif %}
       </td>
     </tr><tr>
       <td>
         <p class="biglink"><a class="biglink" href="{{ pathto("changes") }}">{%trans%}Changes{%endtrans%}</a><br/>
            <span class="linkdescr">{%trans%}release history{%endtrans%}</span></p>
       </td><td>
-      </td>
+        {%- if hasdoc('genindex') %}<p class="biglink"><a class="biglink" href="{{ pathto("genindex") }}">{%trans%}General Index{%endtrans%}</a><br/>
+           <span class="linkdescr">{%trans%}all functions, classes, terms{%endtrans%}</span></p>{%- endif %}
+      </td><td>
     </tr>
   </table>
 

doc/contents.rst

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ Sphinx documentation contents
    :maxdepth: 2
 
    usage/index
+   tutorial/index
    development/index
    man/index
 

doc/tutorial/index.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,185 @@
+.. _tutorial:
+
+===============
+Sphinx tutorial
+===============
+
+In this tutorial you will build a simple documentation project using Sphinx, and
+view it in your browser as HTML.  The project will include narrative,
+handwritten documentation, as well as autogenerated API documentation.
+
+The tutorial is aimed towards Sphinx newcomers willing to learn the fundamentals
+of how projects are created and structured.  You will create a fictional
+software library to generate random food recipes that will serve as a guide
+throughout the process, with the objective of properly documenting it.
+
+To showcase Sphinx capabilities for code documentation you will use Python,
+which also supports *automatic* documentation generation.
+
+.. note::
+
+   Several other languages are natively supported in Sphinx for *manual* code
+   documentation, however they require extensions for *automatic* code
+   documentation, like `Breathe <https://breathe.readthedocs.io/>`_.
+
+To follow the instructions you will need access to a Linux-like command line and
+a basic understanding of how it works, as well as a working Python installation
+for development, since you will use *Python virtual environments* to create the
+project.
+
+Getting started
+---------------
+
+Setting up your project and development environment
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+In a new directory, create a file called ``README.rst`` with the following
+content.
+
+.. code-block:: rest
+
+   Lumache
+   =======
+
+   **Lumache** (/luˈmake/) is a Python library for cooks and food lovers that
+   creates recipes mixing random ingredients.
+
+It is a good moment to create a Python virtual environment and install the
+required tools.  For that, open a command line terminal, ``cd`` into the
+directory you just created, and run the following commands:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+   $ python -m venv .venv
+   $ source .venv/bin/activate
+   (.venv) $ python -m pip install sphinx
+
+.. note::
+
+   The installation method used above is described in more detail in
+   :ref:`install-pypi`.  For the rest of this tutorial, the instructions will
+   assume a Python virtual environment.
+
+If you executed these instructions correctly, you should have the Sphinx command
+line tools available.  You can do a basic verification running this command:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+   (.venv) $ sphinx-build --version
+   sphinx-build 4.0.2
+
+If you see a similar output, you are on the right path!
+
+Creating the documentation layout
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Then from the command line, run the following command:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+   (.venv) $ sphinx-quickstart docs
+
+This will present to you a series of questions required to create the basic
+directory and configuration layout for your project inside the ``docs`` folder.
+To proceed, answer each question as follows:
+
+- ``> Separate source and build directories (y/n) [n]``: Write "``y``" (without
+  quotes) and press :kbd:`Enter`.  - ``> Project name``: Write "``Lumache``"
+  (without quotes) and press :kbd:`Enter`.  - ``> Author name(s)``: Write
+  "``Graziella``" (without quotes) and press :kbd:`Enter`.  - ``> Project
+  release []``: Write "``0.1``" (without quotes) and press :kbd:`Enter`.  - ``>
+  Project language [en]``: Leave it empty (the default, English) and press
+  :kbd:`Enter`.
+
+After the last question, you will see the new ``docs`` directory with the
+following content.
+
+.. code-block:: text
+
+    docs ├── build ├── make.bat ├── Makefile └── source ├── conf.py ├──
+    index.rst ├── _static └── _templates
+
+The purpose of each of these files is:
+
+``build/``
+
+  An empty directory (for now) that will hold the rendered documentation.
+
+``make.bat`` and ``Makefile``
+
+  Convenience scripts to simplify some common Sphinx operations, such as
+  rendering the content.
+
+``source/conf.py``
+
+  A Python script holding the configuration of the Sphinx project.  It contains
+  the project name and release you specified to ``sphinx-quickstart``, as well
+  as some extra configuration keys.
+
+``source/index.rst``
+
+  The :term:`master document` of the project, which serves as welcome page and
+  contains the root of the "table of contents tree" (or *toctree*).
+
+Thanks to this bootstrapping step, you already have everything needed to render
+the documentation as HTML for the first time.  To do that, run this command:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+   (.venv) $ sphinx-build -b html docs/source/ docs/build/html
+
+And finally, open `docs/build/html/index.html` in your browser.  You should see
+something like this:
+
+.. image:: /_static/tutorial/lumache-first-light.png
+
+There we go! You created your first HTML documentation using Sphinx.
+
+Making some tweaks to the index
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The ``index.rst`` file that ``sphinx-quickstart`` created has some content
+already, and it gets rendered as the front page of our HTML documentation.  It
+is written in reStructuredText, a powerful markup language.
+
+Modify the file as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: rest
+
+   Welcome to Lumache's documentation!
+   ===================================
+
+   **Lumache** (/luˈmake/) is a Python library for cooks and food lovers that
+   creates recipes mixing random ingredients.  It pulls data from the `Open Food
+   Facts database <https://world.openfoodfacts.org/>`_ and offers a *simple* and
+   *intuitive* API.
+
+   .. note::
+
+      This project is under active development.
+
+This showcases several features of the reStructuredText syntax, including:
+
+- a **section header** using ``===`` for the underline, - two examples of
+  :ref:`rst-inline-markup`: ``**strong emphasis**`` (typically bold) and
+  ``*emphasis*`` (typically italics), - an **inline external link**, - and a
+  ``note`` **admonition** (one of the available :ref:`directives
+  <rst-directives>`)
+
+Now to render it with the new content, you can use the ``sphinx-build`` command
+as before, or leverage the convenience script as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+   (.venv) $ cd docs
+   (.venv) $ make html
+
+After running this command, you will see that ``index.html`` reflects the new
+changes!
+
+Where to go from here
+---------------------
+
+This tutorial covered the very first steps to create a documentation project
+with Sphinx.  To continue learning more about Sphinx, check out the :ref:`rest
+of the documentation <contents>`.

doc/usage/installation.rst

@@ -185,6 +185,32 @@ the ``--pre`` flag.
 
    $ pip install -U --pre sphinx
 
+Using virtual environments
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+When installing Sphinx using pip,
+it is highly recommended to use *virtual environments*,
+which isolate the installed packages from the system packages,
+thus removing the need to use administrator privileges.
+To create a virtual environment in the ``.venv`` directory,
+use the following command.
+
+::
+
+   $ python -m venv .venv
+
+You can read more about them in the `Python Packaging User Guide`_.
+
+.. _Python Packaging User Guide: https://packaging.python.org/guides/installing-using-pip-and-virtual-environments/#creating-a-virtual-environment
+
+.. warning::
+
+   Note that in some Linux distributions, such as Debian and Ubuntu,
+   this might require an extra installation step as follows.
+
+    .. code-block:: console
+
+       $ apt-get install python3-venv
 
 Docker
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