You can use Python's help() function in an interactive Python shell to view PyDoc generated documentation at the command-line. This is particularly useful to explore API methods. To do this, construct a service object for the API you are interested in and call help on the objects you construct.

From the command-line, start Python, build a service object, and get help on the service:

$ python Python 2.6.5 (r265:79063, Apr 16 2010, 13:57:41) [GCC 4.4.3] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> from googleapiclient.discovery import build >>> service = build("latitude", "v1") >>> help(service) 
Help on Resource in module googleapiclient.discovery object:
 
class Resource(builtin.object)
 | A class for interacting with a resource.
 |
 | Methods defined here:
 |
 | init(self)
 |
 | currentLocation = methodResource(self)
 | A collection resource.
 |
 | location = methodResource(self)
 | A collection resource.
 |
 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 | Data descriptors defined here:
 |
 | dict
 | dictionary for instance variables (if defined)
 |
 | weakref
 | list of weak references to the object (if defined)

Note: The build() function generates a service object at run time, so the initial help information describing an object is too generic to be useful. You can ignore the help header when looking for API-specific details.

The help command above output lists currentLocation and location as collection resources. Get help on the location collection:

>>> help(service.location()) 
Help on Resource in module googleapiclient.discovery object:
 
class Resource(builtin.object)
 | A class for interacting with a resource.
 |
 | Methods defined here:
 |
 | init(self)
 |
 | delete = method(self, **kwargs)
 | Deletes a location from the user's location history.
 |
 | Args:
 | locationId: string, Timestamp of the location to delete (ms since epoch). (required)
 |
 | get = method(self, **kwargs)
 | Reads a location from the user's location history.
 |
 | Args:
 | locationId: string, Timestamp of the location to read (ms since epoch). (required)
 | granularity: string, Granularity of the location to return.
 |
 | Returns:
 | An object of the form
 |
 | { # A Location resource identifies a user's position at a particular time. It may include metadata about the user's position, such as a venue if the location was recorded at the time of a check-in.
 | "kind": "latitude#location", # Kind of this item.
 | "altitude": "", # Altitude of the location, in meters. Optional.
 | "longitude": "", # Longitude of the location, in decimal degrees.
 | "activityId": "", # Unique ID of the Buzz message that corresponds to the check-in associated with this location. Available only for check-in locations. Optional.
 | "latitude": "", # Latitude of the location, in decimal degrees.
 | "altitudeAccuracy": "", # Accuracy of the altitude value, in meters. Optional.
 | "timestampMs": "", # Timestamp of the Location Resource, in milliseconds since the epoch (UTC). This is also the Location Resource's unique id.
 | "speed": "", # Ground speed of the user at the time this location was recorded, in meters per second. Non-negative. Optional.
 | "heading": "", # Direction of travel of the user when this location was recorded. In degrees, clockwise relative to true north. Optional.
 | "accuracy": "", # Accuracy of the latitude and longitude coordinates, in non-negative meters. Optional.
 | }
 |
 ...
 |
 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 | Data descriptors defined here:
 |
 | dict
 | dictionary for instance variables (if defined)
 |
 | weakref
 | list of weak references to the object (if defined)

The help output lists delete as a method. Get help on the delete method:

>>> help(service.location().delete) 
Help on method method in module googleapiclient.discovery:
 
method(self, **kwargs) method of googleapiclient.discovery.Resource instance
 Deletes a location from the user's location history.
 
Args: locationId: string, Timestamp of the location to delete (ms since epoch). (required)</pre> 
 
 For each method, the arguments are listed along with their types and descriptions. For example, the list method has min_time, max_results, max_time, and granularity arguments. 
 
 The (required) flag indicates that the argument must be supplied when calling the method; otherwise the argument is optional. 
 
 Method arguments may also be flagged as (repeated) which indicates that you may pass in a Python list of values for that argument.