Review templating docs.

doc/templating.rst

@@ -31,33 +31,31 @@ Jinja/Sphinx Templating Primer
 ------------------------------
 
 The default templating language in Sphinx is Jinja.  It's Django/Smarty inspired
-and easy to understand.  The most important concept in Jinja is
+and easy to understand.  The most important concept in Jinja is :dfn:`template
-:dfn:`template inheritance`, which means that you can overwrite only specific
+inheritance`, which means that you can overwrite only specific blocks within a
-blocks within a template, customizing it while also keeping the changes at a
+template, customizing it while also keeping the changes at a minimum.
-minimum.
 
 To customize the output of your documentation you can override all the templates
-(both the layout templates and the child templates) by adding files with the same
+(both the layout templates and the child templates) by adding files with the
-name as the original filename into the template directory of the folder the sphinx
+same name as the original filename into the template directory of the folder the
-quickstart generated for you.
+Sphinx quickstart generated for you.
 
-Sphinx will look for templates in the folders of :confval:`templates_path` first,
+Sphinx will look for templates in the folders of :confval:`templates_path`
-and if it can't find the template it's looking for there, it falls back to the
+first, and if it can't find the template it's looking for there, it falls back
-builtin templates that come with sphinx.  You can have a look at them by browsing
+to the builtin templates that come with Sphinx.
-the sphinx directory in your site packages folder.
 
-A template contains **variables**, which get replaced with values when the
+A template contains **variables**, which are replaced with values when the
 template is evaluated, **tags**, which control the logic of the template and
 **blocks** which are used for template inheritance.
 
 Sphinx provides base templates with a couple of blocks it will fill with data.
-The default templates are located in the `templates` folder of the sphinx
+The default templates are located in the :file:`templates` folder of the Sphinx
 installation directory.  Templates with the same name in the
-:confval:`templates_path` override templates from the builtin folder.
+:confval:`templates_path` override templates located in the builtin folder.
 
-To add a new link to the template area containing related links all you have
+For example, to add a new link to the template area containing related links all
-to do is to add a new template called ``layout.html`` with the following
+you have to do is to add a new template called ``layout.html`` with the
-contents:
+following contents:
 
 .. sourcecode:: html+jinja
 
@@ -67,42 +65,48 @@ contents:
         {{ super() }}
     {% endblock %}
 
-By prefixing the parent template with an exclamation mark, sphinx will load
+By prefixing the name of the extended template with an exclamation mark, Sphinx
-the builtin layout template.  If you override a block you should call
+will load the builtin layout template.  If you override a block, you should call
-``{{ super() }}`` to render the parent contents unless you don't want the
+``{{ super() }}`` somewhere to render the block's content in the extended
-parent contents to show up.
+template -- unless you don't want that content to show up.
 
 
 Blocks
 ~~~~~~
 
-The following blocks exist in the layout template:
+The following blocks exist in the ``layout`` template:
 
 `doctype`
-    The doctype of the output format.  By default this is XHTML 1.0
+    The doctype of the output format.  By default this is XHTML 1.0 Transitional
-    Transitional as this is the closest to what sphinx generates and it's a
+    as this is the closest to what Sphinx and Docutils generate and it's a good
-    good idea not to change it unless you want to switch to HTML 5 or a
+    idea not to change it unless you want to switch to HTML 5 or a different but
-    different but compatible XHTML doctype.
+    compatible XHTML doctype.
 
 `rellinks`
-    This block adds a couple of `<link>` tags to the head section of the
+    This block adds a couple of ``<link>`` tags to the head section of the
     template.
 
 `extrahead`
-    This block is empty by default and can be used to add extra contents
+    This block is empty by default and can be used to add extra contents into
-    into the head section of the generated HTML file.  This is the right
+    the ``<head>`` tag of the generated HTML file.  This is the right place to
-    place to add references to javascript or extra CSS files.
+    add references to JavaScript or extra CSS files.
 
 `relbar1` / `relbar2`
-    This block contains the list of related links.  `relbar1` appears
+    This block contains the list of related links (the parent documents on the
-    before the document, `relbar2` after.
+    left, and the links to index, modules etc. on the right).  `relbar1` appears
+    before the document, `relbar2` after the document.  By default, both blocks
+    are filled; to show the relbar only before the document, you would override
+    `relbar2` like this::
+
+       {% block relbar2 %}{% endblock %}
 
 `rootrellink` / `relbaritems`
-    Inside the rel bar there are three sections.  The `rootrellink`, the links
+    Inside the relbar there are three sections: The `rootrellink`, the links
-    from the documentation and the `relbaritems`.  The `rootrellink` is a list
+    from the documentation and the `relbaritems`.  The `rootrellink` is a block
-    item that points to the index of the documentation by default, the
+    that by default contains a list item pointing to the master document by
-    `relbaritems` are empty.  If you override them to add extra links into
+    default, the `relbaritems` is an empty block.  If you override them to add
-    the bar make sure that they are list items and end with the `reldelim1`.
+    extra links into the bar make sure that they are list items and end with the
+    :data:`reldelim1`.
 
 `document`
     The contents of the document itself.
@@ -110,14 +114,17 @@ The following blocks exist in the layout template:
 `sidebar1` / `sidebar2`
     A possible location for a sidebar.  `sidebar1` appears before the document
     and is empty by default, `sidebar2` after the document and contains the
-    default sidebar.  If you want to swap the sidebar location override
+    default sidebar.  If you want to swap the sidebar location override this and
-    this and call the `sidebar` helper:
+    call the `sidebar` helper:
 
     .. sourcecode:: html+jinja
 
         {% block sidebar1 %}{{ sidebar() }}{% endblock %}
         {% block sidebar2 %}{% endblock %}
 
+    (The `sidebar2` location for the sidebar is needed by the ``sphinxdoc.css`
+    stylesheet, for example.)
+
 `footer`
     The block for the footer div.  If you want a custom footer or markup before
     or after it, override this one.
@@ -130,11 +137,13 @@ Inside templates you can set a couple of variables used by the layout template
 using the ``{% set %}`` tag:
 
 .. data:: reldelim1
+
    The delimiter for the items on the left side of the related bar.  This
-    defaults to ``' &raquo;'``  Each item in the related bar ends with the
+   defaults to ``' &raquo;'`` Each item in the related bar ends with the value
-    value of this variable.
+   of this variable.
 
 .. data:: reldelim2
+
    The delimiter for the items on the right side of the related bar.  This
    defaults to ``' |'``.  Each item except of the last one in the related bar
    ends with the value of this variable.
@@ -150,51 +159,58 @@ Overriding works like this:
 Helper Functions
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-Sphinx provides various helper functions in the template you can use to
+Sphinx provides various Jinja functions as helpers in the template.  You can use
-generate links or output often used elements.
+them to generate links or output multiply used elements.
 
-.. function:: pathto(file)
+.. function:: pathto(document)
 
-    Returns the path to a file as URL.
+   Return the path to a Sphinx document as a URL.  Use this to refer to built
+   documents.
 
-.. function:: hasdoc(target)
+.. function:: pathto(file, 1)
 
-    Checks if a document with the name `target` exists.
+   Return the path to a *file* which is a filename relative to the root of the
+   generated output.  Use this to refer to static files.
+
+.. function:: hasdoc(document)
+
+   Check if a document with the name *document* exists.
 
 .. function:: sidebar()
 
-    Returns the rendered sidebar.
+   Return the rendered sidebar.
 
 .. function:: relbar()
 
-    Returns the rendered relbar.
+   Return the rendered relbar.
 
 
 Global Variables
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 These global variables are available in every template and are safe to use.
-There are more, but most of them are an implementation detail and might
+There are more, but most of them are an implementation detail and might change
-change in the future.
+in the future.
 
 .. data:: docstitle
 
-    The title of the documentation.
+   The title of the documentation (the value of :confval:`html_title`).
 
 .. data:: sourcename
 
-    The name of the source file
+   The name of the copied source file for the current document.  This is only
+   nonempty if the :confval:`html_copy_source` value is true.
 
 .. data:: builder
 
-    The name of the builder (``html``, ``htmlhelp``, or ``web``)
+   The name of the builder (for builtin builders, ``html``, ``htmlhelp``, or
+   ``web``).
 
 .. data:: next
 
-    The next document for the navigation.  This variable is either falsy
+   The next document for the navigation.  This variable is either false or has
-    or has two attributes `link` and `title`.  The title contiains HTML
+   two attributes `link` and `title`.  The title contains HTML markup.  For
-    markup.  For example to generate a link to the next page one can use
+   example, to generate a link to the next page, you can use this snippet:
-    this snippet:
 
    .. sourcecode:: html+jinja
 
@@ -204,4 +220,4 @@ change in the future.
 
 .. data:: prev
 
-    Like `next` but for the previous page.
+   Like :data:`next`, but for the previous page.