Isolated Sphinx doc does not build due to missing pytools script

[ben-howt]

Describe the bug Sphinx doc does not build due to missing pytools script make_base if pytools is not in same parent directory

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Clone the repo into a separate directory from any pytools clones
2. Build and activate the conda environment in environment.yml
3. From the sphinx directory, run python make.py html
4. See error

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "make.py", line 30, in <module>
    make()
  File "make.py", line 24, in make
    from make_base import make
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'make_base'

Expected behavior Docs should build.

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: MacOS Big Sur
• Version 1.2.x and 2.0.x

Additional context Likely this is just a note in contributing.md to make sure that the remotes are all present before trying to build the docs.

[j-ittner]

@ben-howt this is by design, so we can maintain a single make script across all 3 associated repos. Open for alternative suggestions - any ideas how to handle better? Would it be sufficient to explain the approach better in the developer guidelines?

[ben-howt]

Thanks @j-ittner for the response; this makes sense to me as a design decision. I would suggest (and can raise a PR for) the following 2 changes:

• Add a note in sphinx/source/contribution_guide.rst
• Add a descriptive error if pytools is not found in the sys.path.insert segment of sphinx/make.py

[j-ittner]

Addressed by #345