7.1 External Tools 
Many tools are needed to be able to process the Python
    documentation if all supported formats are required.  This
    section lists the tools used and when each is required.  Consult
    the Doc/README file to see if there are specific version
    requirements for any of these.
- dvips
- This program is a typical part of TeX installations.  It is
        used to generate PostScript from the ``device independent''
        .dvi files.  It is needed for the conversion to
        PostScript.
 
- emacs
- Emacs is the kitchen sink of programmers' editors, and a damn
        fine kitchen sink it is.  It also comes with some of the
        processing needed to support the proper menu structures for
        Texinfo documents when an info conversion is desired.  This is
        needed for the info conversion.  Using xemacs
        instead of FSF emacs may lead to instability in the
        conversion, but that's because nobody seems to maintain the
        Emacs Texinfo code in a portable manner.
 
- latex
- LaTeX is a large and extensible macro package by Leslie
        Lamport, based on TeX, a world-class typesetter by Donald
        Knuth.  It is used for the conversion to PostScript, and is
        needed for the HTML conversion as well (LaTeX2HTML requires
        one of the intermediate files it creates).
 
- latex2html
- Probably the longest Perl script anyone ever attempted to
        maintain.  This converts LaTeX documents to HTML documents,
        and does a pretty reasonable job.  It is required for the
        conversions to HTML and GNU info.
 
- lynx
- This is a text-mode Web browser which includes an
        HTML-to-plain text conversion.  This is used to convert
        howtodocuments to text.
 
- make
- Just about any version should work for the standard documents,
        but GNU make is required for the experimental
        processes in Doc/tools/sgmlconv/, at least while
        they're experimental.  This is not required for running the
        mkhowto script.
 
- makeindex
- This is a standard program for converting LaTeX index data
        to a formatted index; it should be included with all LaTeX
        installations.  It is needed for the PDF and PostScript
        conversions.
 
- makeinfo
- GNU makeinfo is used to convert Texinfo documents to
        GNU info files.  Since Texinfo is used as an intermediate
        format in the info conversion, this program is needed in that
        conversion.
 
- pdflatex
- pdfTeX is a relatively new variant of TeX, and is used to
        generate the PDF version of the manuals.  It is typically
        installed as part of most of the large TeX distributions.
        pdflatex is pdfTeX using the LaTeX format.
 
- perl
- Perl is required for LaTeX2HTML and one of the scripts used
        to post-process LaTeX2HTML output, as well as the
        HTML-to-Texinfo conversion.  This is required for
        the HTML and GNU info conversions.
 
- python
- Python is used for many of the scripts in the
        Doc/tools/ directory; it is required for all
        conversions.  This shouldn't be a problem if you're interested
        in writing documentation for Python!
    
Release 2.4.3, documentation updated on 29 March 2006.
 
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