Usually I search for help on Google, rather than navigating from the Blender homepage.

I frequently find documentation targeting 2.59, e.g. http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_59_0/info_overview.html

If instead I navigate from the Blender homepage, I arrive at: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Extensions/Python

I notice that many links from this page seem to target 2.5 or 2.6, even the URL has 2.6 in it. Does this mean the documentation is a bit of a jumble?

And then from this page I can reach: http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_70a_release/info_quickstart.html. If I understand correctly, this is the up-to-date equivalent of the first link in this question, although this isn't obvious as many links

How can I locate the legacy help, other than by random chance that Google returns a link? I don't seem to be able to reach it from blender.org

And why is the old documentation so much prettier? It is the most tasteful colour scheme I've ever come across. Why was it abandoned? Is there any harm in using the older documentation?

Could someone put all of this into perspective?


There's an URL that redirects you to the most recent API docs:

Sphinx Doc is used to generate the API documentation. I assume it's the default style we see for our API docs, not sure if Sphinx Doc changed their default or if there was a special stylesheet for 2.59 docs...

The docs received an own page, they were formerly embedded in the old, dark-themed website (and I welcome this change). It might be the reason why the theme changed, it's no more part of the website and doesn't need to look similar. In the meanwhile, the website theme changed to a bright design, and I would like to see the current Sphinx Doc theme adopted:

Sphinx 1.0.7 - https://docs.python.org/2.7/
Sphinx 1.2.1 - https://docs.python.org/3.4/

The light gray design looks stylish and modern like the new blender.org design

The Wiki is a jungle of 2.4x docs, partially copied over to 2.6 pages and never updated again, some 2.5 guides and screenshots missing newer features, as well as some very up-to-date 2.6x pages - mainly the most frequently accessed pages (introduction, 3d view port...). Too bad Google doesn't accept documentation projects for the Summer of Code, I worry it will stay a blend of old, partially updated and up-to-date pages forever.

  • $\begingroup$ Maybe they should follow each Summer of Code with a Winter of Documentation... $\endgroup$ – P i Apr 15 '14 at 15:50

Your Answer

