| Developer(s) | Georg Brandl |
|---|---|
| Initial release | March 21, 2008 |
| Stable release | 1.1.2 / November 1, 2011 |
| Written in | Python |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Documentation generator |
| License | BSD |
| Website | sphinx.pocoo.org |
Sphinx is a documentation generator which converts reStructuredText files into HTML websites and other formats including PDF, EPub and man. It exploits the extensible nature of reStructuredText through a number of extensions (e.g. for autogenerating documentation from source code, writing mathematical notation or highlighting source code). The first public release, version 0.1.61611, was announced on March 21, 2008[1]. It was developed for, and used extensively by, the Python project for documentation[2].
Since its introduction in 2008, Sphinx was adopted by many other important Python projects, such as Bazaar, SQLAlchemy, MayaVi, Sage, SciPy, Django and Pylons; it is also used for the Blender Python API documentation[3]. In an effort to make maintenance of software documentation easier, the Read the Docs project was created[4]. It automates the process of building and uploading Sphinx documentation after every commit. It is sponsored by the Python Software Foundation[5].