CI: build documentation for Windows

[simonjayhawkins]

xref #26499 (comment)

documentation is a good place to start for new contributors.

should a doc build be included in CI to ensure that the documentation builds smoothly on Windows?

if so:

• should a build failure be an allowed failure?
• should it be a separate job or included in the one of the two current windows jobs?

[WillAyd]

I think a full build on Windows would be overkill. Is there a way to just build a small part that checks the functionality without having to wait the entire thing out?

[simonjayhawkins]

I think a full build on Windows would be overkill.

that's my concern. it could disrupt the current workflow.

Is there a way to just build a small part that checks the functionality without having to wait the entire thing out?

some smoke test could be a possibility or maybe just a nightly job on a full build would suffice.

[jreback]

actually we have an issue about building the docs on azure

wouldn’t mind having a linux and a windows build
(we can push from just the linux one)

if it’s easier to have a quick windows build that’s fine too (eg maybe be a partial build)

[jorisvandenbossche]

We could certainly build a part (like a single page) to at least catch errors in the general sphinx configuration (that will not catch windows-specific errors in all code examples though).

[datapythonista]

I did some tests on this and most of the changes are somehow simple. I have this PR in my fork that shows what it involves: https://github.com/datapythonista/pandas/pull/10/files

The only requirement would be to unify the environment set up between windows and Linux/mac. I tried a simple s/script/bash in the azure configuration, but seems like the azure Windows bash doesn't support everything we're doing, so it'll require a bit more work.

The issue for unifying that would be #26344.

[afeld]

👋 Relatively new docs contributor here. I think it's very reasonable to have an opinionated development setup, e.g. "Want to contribute? Use the Docker setup." Folks that want something different can set that up, since they will probably want something customized anyway.