ROS Resources: Documentation | Support | Discussion Forum | Index | Service Status | ros @ Robotics Stack Exchange
Ask Your Question
0

Where's the official Python API documentation for TF?

asked 2018-04-07 08:33:27 -0500

nbro gravatar image

updated 2018-04-07 09:55:33 -0500

The web article http://wiki.ros.org/tf only seems to point to the C++ API documentation (e.g. the following sub-article http://wiki.ros.org/tf/Overview/Data%... only contains C++ examples). I would like to use Python instead. I would like to read the official Python documentation for tf. Where can I find it?

In other ROS Wiki pages, there's usually the possibility to see both the Python and C++ version of the code or documentation. Why doesn't http://wiki.ros.org/tf provide such a duality?

I know there are a few tf tutorials (e.g. http://wiki.ros.org/tf/Tutorials/Writ... ) which use Python, but I would like to see all other examples and documentation in Python. There's this page http://mirror.umd.edu/roswiki/doc/dia... , but it doesn't seem to be official.

I have also seen that there's also a new Python interface to the new tf library, i.e. to tf2, which is called tf2_ros. However, the documentation is pretty much empty. For example, the class TransformBroadcaster is not documented. Why? Why aren't people putting some effort on the documentation?

Furthermore, there's also the following article http://wiki.ros.org/tf/TfUsingPython , but there's no link from the web page http://wiki.ros.org/tf to it, besides being very poorly written and very incomplete.

edit retag flag offensive close merge delete

3 Answers

Sort by ยป oldest newest most voted
3

answered 2018-04-08 03:00:05 -0500

gvdhoorn gravatar image

updated 2018-04-12 10:09:11 -0500

All of the pages listed by @nbro are linked directly from the Package Links linkbox to the right of the Package Summary header on the tf2_ros wiki page:

package links

which takes you to:

tf2 doc

All ROS pkgs with (Doxygen) API docs should have those links.

You should not need to search docs.ros.org yourself (but you can, of course).


Edit1: there is actually a tutorial about this: Navigating the ROS wiki.

edit flag offensive delete link more

Comments

It's incredible I have never noticed "Code API" on that side of a ROS wiki article. If I am the only one who missed it, then shame on me, but if there are many other people in my situation, shame on the designers of the ROS wiki.

nbro gravatar image nbro  ( 2018-04-10 10:31:09 -0500 )edit
1

"shame"? Really?

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2018-04-10 13:37:50 -0500 )edit

@gvdhoorn FYI I've given @nbro an official warning relating to this and a few other posts. https://github.com/ros/geometry/issue...

tfoote gravatar image tfoote  ( 2018-04-10 13:39:33 -0500 )edit

To be clear: I don't mind frank discussions and stating of opinions (I'm Dutch, I actually appreciate it). I do believe however that one needs to be careful not to come off as harsh or abrasive. This could just be a matter of the 'email effect', but expressions such as "shame on .." are a bit much.

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2018-04-10 13:52:45 -0500 )edit

Yes, I understand that there may be a tutorial. My point is: there should not exist the need for a tutorial for such a basic functionality. Don't you also think?

nbro gravatar image nbro  ( 2018-04-12 10:57:59 -0500 )edit

Every person is different. What may be apparent or intuitive to one could be opaque to another. I guess the tutorial / guide exists to explain how the wiki is layed out so that it becomes easier to find what you are looking for.

I can't comment on whether or not the current layout is bad or not, ..

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2018-04-12 11:08:33 -0500 )edit

.. as I feel I'm too accustomed to all of this already to really have an objective opinion.

gvdhoorn gravatar image gvdhoorn  ( 2018-04-12 11:09:00 -0500 )edit

There are fields like human-computer interaction (HCI) and user-experience design (UXD) which exist to solve this kind of problems.

nbro gravatar image nbro  ( 2018-04-12 12:08:59 -0500 )edit
1

answered 2018-04-07 12:12:09 -0500

jayess gravatar image

updated 2018-04-08 15:10:54 -0500

Here's the official documentation for tf's Python API and here's the link for tf2's Python API documentation (both for Kinetic).


The URL structure is

http://docs.ros.org/<ros-distro>/api/tf/html/python/tf_python.html

for tf and

http://docs.ros.org/<ros-distro>/api/tf2/html/

for tf2.

Just change the <ros-distro> portion of the URL to get your desired version of the docs.

edit flag offensive delete link more

Comments

@jayess The documentation exists for different ROS versions. I would encourage you to edit your answer and include the documentation for each ROS distribution and not just for kinetic (even though I added the tag only for kinetic, but apparently I can't add more tags).

nbro gravatar image nbro  ( 2018-04-07 13:28:08 -0500 )edit

Note that the second template URL is equal to the first one!

nbro gravatar image nbro  ( 2018-04-07 14:57:48 -0500 )edit
0

answered 2018-04-07 14:53:48 -0500

nbro gravatar image

updated 2018-04-07 14:56:52 -0500

edit flag offensive delete link more

Question Tools

1 follower

Stats

Asked: 2018-04-07 08:33:27 -0500

Seen: 1,515 times

Last updated: Apr 12 '18