How to get Sphinx working in PyCharm with Python 3.5

Question

This is my first time using Sphinx in PyCharm 5.0 with Python 3.5.

When I run sphinx task in PyCharm I get the following error:

File "C:\Program Files (x86)\JetBrains\PyCharm 5.0\helpers\docutils\__init__.py", line 63, in <module>
    class ApplicationError(StandardError): pass
NameError: name 'StandardError' is not defined

On this page I discovered that in Python 3.x StandardError is now replaced with Exception. However, when I try to edit the __init__.py file PyCharm prevents me from saving it.

I also noticed that __init__.py is based off of docutils version 0.8. This is not intuitive since I installed docutils version 0.12 in my virtualenv. Meaning that version 0.12 is being ignored.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Answer 1

Update: PyCharm 5.0.2 fixes this, and Sphinx run configurations work under Python 3

Unfortunately the Python code shipped in PyCharm pre-5.0.2 helpers is not Python 3 compatible. The PyCharm issue tracker has a ticket. I once gave a crack at fixing all the small boo-boos, but then ran into some bigger ones.

So instead, just make a Run Configuration that calls:

• Script (on Mac): /Users/paul/projects/jetbrains/env35/bin/sphinx-build
• Script parameters: -b html -d _build/doctrees . _build/html

...and set the working directory to the place you want the _build directory.

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Edit: Added a link for how to create and edit run/debug configurations in pycharm and a screenshot for windows. Script location is 'Scripts' as opposed to 'bin'.

Creating and Editing Run/Debug Configurations in PyCharm 5.0

PyCharm 5.0 Screenshot (on Windows)