Ordering of search results in the docs could be improved

[adqm]

When searching for "str" in the documentation, for example, the built-in str type shows up 44th in the list of results currently. This specific example (as well as a general notion that the search results are often not useful) was recently cited to me by a colleague as one reason that they choose to caution beginner students against using Python's docs compared to other alternatives, because the docs are "hard to navigate" and "hard to search." I disagree with that assessment on the whole, but I do think that improving the ordering of the search results would make the docs easier to use and navigate, particularly for folks just starting out with Python.

Sphinx has a mechanism for custom sorting of search results, so it should be possible to come up with some heuristics there that improve the ordering of the results. I'll put in a PR in a little while with one small step that I think is an improvement.

Linked PRs

• gh-138277: Elevate Built-in Types and Functions in Documentation Search #138278

[skirpichev]

Prior issue: #86272

Maybe this worth first a more wide discussion on https://discuss.python.org/c/documentation/26

[adqm]

Thanks! I agree that a discussion on Discourse is a good idea. I'm tempted to put together a more-complete implementation of more of my ideas before opening a thread there, though; I'm mildly concerned that a discussion in the abstract could lead to a bunch of back-and-forth with no real motion, whereas a concrete implementation to poke holes in might help to keep things focused.

[skirpichev]

I'm mildly concerned that a discussion in the abstract could lead to a bunch of back-and-forth with no real motion, whereas a concrete implementation to poke holes in might help to keep things focused.

Well, there are open issues, so feel free to create prs.

Discussion should attract a wider audience and you always can provide concrete implementations e.g. as pr's against your CPython fork. Sure, it's always better if you could formalize your idea with code.

[A-UNDERSCORE-D]

This has come up a number of times in #python on IRC. I'd absolutely be happy to help etc with this if needed.