Fixes and improvements to 3.8 whatsnew by aeros · Pull Request #16535 · python/cpython
I don't think most of these should be done and they will get in the way of the more substantive edits currently in progress.
This PR was primarily made because of @ambv's announcement in python-dev for 3.8.0rc1, specifically the request for helping with the "What's New" document:
Can you help with the “What’s New” document?
As someone who has become highly familiar with using Sphinx roles from other contributions I've made to the documentation and the devguide, I found that I was able to help fix many of the currently broken inline links and add a few useful new ones. Those links can be quite useful for readers to easily navigate to a page for finding more information on a given topic. It's not always straightforward for readers to find the correct location if they're not familiar with the structure of the documentation and the search feature is not always reliable.
I'm aware that they are not as important as the entries themselves, but they certainly have some "substantive" value. I also spent a substantial amount of time reviewing these changes to make sure the ones that were fixed or added were rendering properly and linking to the current location by building the documentation locally, in addition to finding the broken ones in the first place.
Also, I feel like I've been getting rather mixed and inconsistent messages regarding the importance and usage of Sphinx roles. From the thread that I created in python-dev regarding Sphinx roles in addition to other conversations with core developers, my impression has been that the most valuable locations to have them in is "What's New" and the docs due to the volume of readers. Since then, I haven't emphasized on adding them for individual Misc/NEWS entries, as I was in the past. Recently, I've only been concerned with fixing them in the actual docs and "What's New". Personally, I think that if we're going to use them, we should do so correctly.
The impression I'm getting here though is that these changes would be getting in the way of more substantial ones. If this is correct, I am willing to accept that and can focus my efforts on other areas, such as asyncio.
But, I would highly appreciate it if we could have a clear message on this so that I'm not just spending a portion my available time tidying up "What's New" entries, only for it to be essentially said that my efforts would be getting in the way. I was previously under the impression that it would be fairly important to not have broken inline links in the "What's New" for 3.8, considering that the release is scheduled to be coming up in a couple of days.
Edit: Also, I wanted to mention that I have no issue with resolving the merge conflicts and waiting to add these changes until after the other ones are finished.