The docs for the PYTHONPATH var indicate that its items are separated by
colons. In fact they're separated by whatever's customary for the O/S.
Patch attached.

PYTHONPATH variable is likely to be defined by sysadmins who may not know 
what os.pathsep is.  Maybe it is better to say "OS-dependent separator 
(';' on Windows, ':' on Linux and other UNIX-like OSes or ',' on some 
less-known systems.)"

Alexander Belopolsky wrote:
> Alexander Belopolsky added the comment:
> 
> PYTHONPATH variable is likely to be defined by sysadmins who may not know 
> what os.pathsep is.  Maybe it is better to say "OS-dependent separator 
> (';' on Windows, ':' on Linux and other UNIX-like OSes or ',' on some 
> less-known systems.)"

Maybe, but I have made the doc reference a link to the os.pathsep
doc which basically says what you just did.

> .. but I have made the doc reference a link to the os.pathsep

I knew you would say that :-).  I was making my comment out of real life 
experience: sysadmins rarely know python language, but can do good job 
administering python installations.  For better or worse, the target 
audience for PYTHONPATH documentation is likely not to be interested in 
being educated in the python programming language.  Having to lookup the 
meaning of os.pathsep just to understand the format of PYTHONPATH is a distraction. Another problem with the link is that cmdline page is 
likely to be printed out for a quick reference and the link will 
obviously not work in the printout.

Alexander Belopolsky wrote:
> Alexander Belopolsky added the comment:
> 
>> .. but I have made the doc reference a link to the os.pathsep
> 
> I knew you would say that :-).  I was making my comment out of real life 
> experience: sysadmins rarely know python language, but can do good job 
> administering python installations.  For better or worse, the target 
> audience for PYTHONPATH documentation is likely not to be interested in 
> being educated in the python programming language.  Having to lookup the 
> meaning of os.pathsep just to understand the format of PYTHONPATH is a distraction. Another problem with the link is that cmdline page is 
> likely to be printed out for a quick reference and the link will 
> obviously not work in the printout.

I don't feel strongly about it. Feel free to propose an alternative
wording for the patch :)

> Feel free to propose an alternative wording for the patch 

I thought I already did in my first post.  The complete sentence should 
read:

"""
The format is the same as the shell's :envvar:`PATH`: one or more 
directory pathnames separated by an OS-dependent character (';' on 
Windows, ':' on Linux and other UNIX-like OSes or ',' on some 
less-known systems.)
"""

Alexander Belopolsky wrote:
> Alexander Belopolsky added the comment:
> 
>> Feel free to propose an alternative wording for the patch 
> 
> I thought I already did in my first post.  The complete sentence should 
> read:
> 
> """
> The format is the same as the shell's :envvar:`PATH`: one or more 
> directory pathnames separated by an OS-dependent character (';' on 
> Windows, ':' on Linux and other UNIX-like OSes or ',' on some 
> less-known systems.)
> """

Ah. Lazily, I meant: feel free to upload a patch containing the
wording you think good.

TJG

I took the best of both worlds and committed in r61255.