ngdb.guide

Defines the class for opening and managing a Norton Guide database.

EOFResult module-attribute

EOFResult = TypeVar('EOFResult')

Return type of a method decorated with @not_eof.

NortonGuide

NortonGuide(guide)

Norton Guide database wrapper class.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
guide	str | Path	The guide to open.	required

CREDIT_LENGTH class-attribute instance-attribute

CREDIT_LENGTH = 66

The length of a line in the credits.

MAGIC class-attribute instance-attribute

MAGIC = {'EH': 'Expert Help', 'NG': 'Norton Guide'}

Lookup for valid database magic markers.

TITLE_LENGTH class-attribute instance-attribute

TITLE_LENGTH = 40

The length of a title in the header.

credits property

credits

The credits for the guide.

eof property

eof

Are we at the end of the guide?

is_a property

is_a

Is the guide actually a Norton Guide database?

is_open property

is_open

Is the guide open?

made_with property

made_with

The name of the tool that was used to make the guide.

magic property

magic

The magic value for the guide.

This tells us if the file is likely a Norton Guide database or not. It's always a two-character string and, normally, is NG. However, if the guide was made for Expert Help, it could be EH.

menu_count property

menu_count

The count of menu options in the guide.

menus property

menus

The menus for the guide.

path property

path

The path to the guide.

title property

title

The title of the guide.

__del__

__del__()

Ensure we close the handle to the guide if we're deleted.

__enter__

__enter__()

Handle entry to context.

__exit__

__exit__(*_)

Handle exit from context.

__iter__

__iter__()

Allow iterating through every entry in the guide.

Yields:

Type	Description
Short | Long	An entry from the guide. Either a Short or a Long entry.

Raises:

Type	Description
UnknownEntryType	If an unknown type of entry is encountered.

__repr__

__repr__()

The string representation of the guide.

Returns:

Type	Description
str	A string representation of the guide object.

__str__

__str__()

The string representation of the guide.

Returns:

Type	Description
str	The guide's full path/file name as a string.

close

close()

Close the guide, if it's open.

Note

Closing the guide when it isn't open is a non-op. It's always safe to make this call.

goto

goto(pos)

Go to a specific location in the guide.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
pos	int	The position to go to.	required

Returns:

Type	Description
Self	Self.

goto_first

goto_first()

Go to the first entry in the guide.

Returns:

Type	Description
Self	Self.

load

load()

Load the entry at the current position.

Returns:

Type	Description
Short | Long	The entry found at the current position. Either a Short or a Long entry.

Raises:

Type	Description
NGEOF	If we attempt to load when at EOF.
UnknownEntryType	If the type wasn't an entry.

maybe staticmethod

maybe(candidate)

Does the given file look like it might be a Norton Guide?

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
candidate	Path	The file to consider.	required

Returns:

Type	Description
bool	True if the file might be a Norton Guide, False if not.

Notes

The content of the file is not looked at here, just the name of the file. This means it can be used as a fast initial filter. To see if a file is really a Norton Guide open it with NortonGuide and check is_a.

Also keep in mind that even the existence of the file isn't taken into account.

skip

skip()

Skip the current entry.

Returns:

Type	Description
Self	Self.

Raises:

Type	Description
NGEOF	If we attempt to skip when at EOF.

not_eof

not_eof(meth)

Decorator to ensure a guide isn't at EOF before executing a method.

Parameters:

Name	Type	Description	Default
meth	Callable[..., EOFResult]	The method fo protect.	required

Returns:

Type	Description
Callable[..., EOFResult]	The guard.

This decorator is used as part of NortonGuide, to decorate functions that should test for being eof before the work of the method is done. If the guide is eof NGEOF will be raised.