Two LATEX 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
LATEXreport 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 LATEXarticle 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
broader. 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
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.