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Build the documentation without warnings - #64

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HazenBabcock merged 1 commit into
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HazenBabcock:fix-doc-warnings
Sep 8, 2026
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HazenBabcock merged 1 commit into
ZhuangLab:masterfrom
HazenBabcock:fix-doc-warnings

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sphinx-build emitted two warnings, both from settings sphinx-quickstart
wrote and nobody revisited since:

WARNING: Invalid configuration value found: 'language = None'. Update your
         configuration to a valid language code. Falling back to 'en'.
WARNING: html_static_path entry '_static' does not exist

language = None was the old way to say "not translated". Newer Sphinx wants
a language code and falls back to 'en' anyway, so this says 'en'.

doc/source/_static has never existed and is not ignored — it was simply
never created. There are no custom static files, so this empties
html_static_path rather than adding an empty directory whose only purpose
would be to stop the warning. A comment says how to put it back if custom CSS
is ever wanted.

The output is unchanged

Building before and after gives identical file lists, and the only file that
differs at all is .doctrees/environment.pickle, which is Sphinx's own build
cache and records the config. Every html, css and js file is byte identical.
_static in the output still contains alabaster.css and the rest, since
those come from the theme rather than from html_static_path.

sphinx-build now reports build succeeded. with no warnings.

Nothing in the test suite or in pyproject.toml refers to doc/, and Sphinx
is not a dependency of the package, so this cannot affect the analysis code.

sphinx-build emitted two, both from settings sphinx-quickstart wrote and
nobody revisited:

  WARNING: Invalid configuration value found: 'language = None'. Update
           your configuration to a valid language code. Falling back to
           'en' (English).
  WARNING: html_static_path entry '_static' does not exist

language = None was the old way to say "not translated". Newer Sphinx
wants a language code and falls back to 'en', so say 'en'.

doc/source/_static has never existed, and is not ignored, it was simply
never created. There are no custom static files, so the honest fix is an
empty html_static_path rather than an empty directory that exists only
to stop the warning. The comment says how to put it back.

The output is unchanged. Building before and after gives identical file
lists, and the only file that differs at all is
.doctrees/environment.pickle, which is sphinx's own build cache and
records the config. Every html, css and js file is byte identical, and
_static in the output still has alabaster.css and friends, because those
come from the theme rather than from html_static_path.

No test run: nothing in the test suite or in pyproject.toml refers to
doc/.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@HazenBabcock
HazenBabcock merged commit 77dd755 into ZhuangLab:master Sep 8, 2026
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@HazenBabcock
HazenBabcock deleted the fix-doc-warnings branch September 8, 2026 22:10
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