Sphinx >=1.3 has the "any" role (http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/1.4.8/markup/inline.html#role-any) which allows one to write e.g.

`Axes`

instead of

:class:`Axes`

and will automatically figure out the proper markup role (and warn if there is an ambiguity).

This would make non-rendered docstrings quite more readable.