When using Python to do some accessibility work using pyatspi, it's very handy to have the documentation available for the classes and methods available. One way to inspect them is as follows.

Start Python's interpreter:

joe@itaca:~$ python
Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Jul 31 2008, 17:28:52) 
[GCC 4.2.3 (Ubuntu 4.2.3-2ubuntu7)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> 

While running Python's interpreter, import the pyatspi module:

>>> import pyatspi

Inspect the symbols in that module:

>>> dir(pyatspi)

You should get a pretty big list of elements, something like:

['ALL_INTERFACES', 'Accessibility', 'Accessibility__POA', 'CACHE_EVENTS', 'CACHE_INTERFACES', 'CACHE_PROPERTIES', 'DESKTOP_COORDS', 'EVENT_TREE', 'KEY_PRESS', 'KEY_PRESSED', 'KEY_PRESSED_EVENT', 'KEY_PRESSRELEASE', 'KEY_RELEASE', 'KEY_RELEASED', 'KEY_RELEASED_EVENT', 'KEY_STRING', 'KEY_SYM', 'LAYER_BACKGROUND', 'LAYER_CANVAS', 'LAYER_INVALID', 'LAYER_LAST_DEFINED', 'LAYER_MDI', 'LAYER_OVERLAY', 'LAYER_POPUP', 'LAYER_WIDGET',

If the list like above appeared, it means you have pyatspi installed and everything is fine. Now we need to iterate those symbols and request their help documentation.

>>> for label in dir(pyatspi):
...     help(label)
... 
 

And the docs should be displayed on the screen. An example of the format in which the documentation is:

    class Text(Bonobo.Unknown)
     |  Method resolution order:
     |      Text
     |      Bonobo.Unknown
     |      CORBA.Object
     |      __builtin__.object
     |  
     |  Methods defined here:
     |  
     |  addSelection(...)
     |      addSelection(startOffset, endOffset) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/boolean:1.0'
     |  
     |  getAttributeRun(...)
     |      getAttributeRun(offset, includeDefaults) -> 'IDL:Accessibility/AttributeSet:1.0', startOffset, endOffset
     |  
     |  getAttributeValue(...)
     |      getAttributeValue(offset, attributeName) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/string:1.0', startOffset, endOffset, defined
     |  
     |  getAttributes(...)
     |      getAttributes(offset) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/string:1.0', startOffset, endOffset
     |  
     |  getBoundedRanges(...)
     |      getBoundedRanges(x, y, width, height, coordType, xClipType, yClipType) -> 'IDL:Accessibility/Text/RangeList:1.0'
     |  
     |  getCharacterAtOffset(...)
     |      getCharacterAtOffset(offset) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/unsigned_long:1.0'
     |  
     |  getCharacterExtents(...)
     |      getCharacterExtents(offset, coordType) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/void:1.0', x, y, width, height
     |  
     |  getDefaultAttributeSet(...)
     |      getDefaultAttributeSet() -> 'IDL:Accessibility/AttributeSet:1.0'
     |  
     |  getDefaultAttributes(...)
     |      getDefaultAttributes() -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/string:1.0'
     |  
     |  getNSelections(...)
     |      getNSelections() -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/long:1.0'
     |  
     |  getOffsetAtPoint(...)
     |      getOffsetAtPoint(x, y, coordType) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/long:1.0'
     |  
     |  getRangeExtents(...)
     |      getRangeExtents(startOffset, endOffset, coordType) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/void:1.0', x, y, width, height
     |  
     |  getSelection(...)
     |      getSelection(selectionNum) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/void:1.0', startOffset, endOffset
     |  
     |  getText(...)
     |      getText(startOffset, endOffset) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/string:1.0'
     |  
     |  getTextAfterOffset(...)
     |      getTextAfterOffset(offset, type) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/string:1.0', startOffset, endOffset
     |  
     |  getTextAtOffset(...)
     |      getTextAtOffset(offset, type) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/string:1.0', startOffset, endOffset
     |  
     |  getTextBeforeOffset(...)
     |      getTextBeforeOffset(offset, type) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/string:1.0', startOffset, endOffset
     |  
     |  removeSelection(...)
     |      removeSelection(selectionNum) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/boolean:1.0'
     |  
     |  setCaretOffset(...)
     |      setCaretOffset(offset) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/boolean:1.0'
     |  
     |  setSelection(...)
     |      setSelection(selectionNum, startOffset, endOffset) -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/boolean:1.0'
     |  
     |  unImplemented(...)
     |      unImplemented() -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/void:1.0'
     |  
     |  unImplemented2(...)
     |      unImplemented2() -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/void:1.0'
     |  
     |  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
     |  Data descriptors defined here:
     |  
     |  caretOffset
     |  
     |  characterCount
     |  
     |  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
     |  Data and other attributes defined here:
     |  
     |  Range = <class 'Accessibility.Range'>
     |  
     |  
     |  __typecode__ = <CORBA.TypeCode 'IDL:Accessibility/Text:1.0'>
     |  
     |  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
     |  Methods inherited from Bonobo.Unknown:
     |  
     |  queryInterface(...)
     |      queryInterface(repoid) -> 'IDL:Bonobo/Unknown:1.0'
     |  
     |  ref(...)
     |      ref() -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/void:1.0'
     |  
     |  unref(...)
     |      unref() -> 'IDL:omg.org/CORBA/void:1.0'
     |  

I am adding the document with all the API docs as an attachment.