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Merged
merged 7 commits into from
May 24, 2019
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bpo-20285: Improve help docs for object #4759

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c6e7fe9
bpo-20285: Improve help docs for object
csabella Dec 9, 2017
6ea9419
Requested changes.
csabella Dec 22, 2017
5b4d0e6
Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into pr_4759
terryjreedy Feb 2, 2018
cc58380
Modify news.
terryjreedy Feb 2, 2018
6abc7f3
Improve docstring for object
csabella Feb 12, 2018
fce40fe
Merge branch 'bpo20285' of github.com:csabella/cpython into bpo20285
csabella Feb 12, 2018
51b59fd
Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/master' into pr_4759
terryjreedy May 24, 2019
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4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions Lib/pydoc.py
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -873,7 +873,7 @@ def spilldata(msg, attrs, predicate):
thisclass = attrs[0][2]
attrs, inherited = _split_list(attrs, lambda t: t[2] is thisclass)

if thisclass is builtins.object:
if object is not builtins.object and thisclass is builtins.object:
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What is the purpose of this change?

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The have help(object) print the methods defined on object, the same as it does for every other class.

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One confusing thing about this module is that the argument that the docs are being created for is named is object. So, for this PR, object both can refer to the name of the argument and the class called object.

thisclass is the third value (index 2) in the sequence returned from inspect.classify_class_attrs(object), which is defined as "The class which defined this attribute" (from the docstring). When the value of the class is object, the current if statement if thisclass is builtins.object: results in that attribute being skipped from the output.

The change is to skip the logic when the argument value is not builtins.object so that the attributes will be displayed when help(object) is used. Without this change, all of the attributes are skipped because "The class which defined this attribute" is always object.

attrs = inherited
continue
elif thisclass is object:
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1319,7 +1319,7 @@ def spilldata(msg, attrs, predicate):
thisclass = attrs[0][2]
attrs, inherited = _split_list(attrs, lambda t: t[2] is thisclass)

if thisclass is builtins.object:
if object is not builtins.object and thisclass is builtins.object:
attrs = inherited
continue
elif thisclass is object:
Expand Down
3 changes: 3 additions & 0 deletions Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2017-12-08-20-30-37.bpo-20285.cfnp0J.rst
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@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
Expand object.__doc__ (docstring) to make it clearer.
Modify pydoc.py so that help(object) lists object methods
(for other classes, help omits methods of the object base class.)
5 changes: 4 additions & 1 deletion Objects/typeobject.c
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Expand Up @@ -4707,6 +4707,9 @@ static PyMethodDef object_methods[] = {
{0}
};

PyDoc_STRVAR(object_doc,
"object()\n--\n\nThe starting base class of all types and classes other\n"
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I am not familiar with docstrings in C code, but it appears that 'classname()\n--\n\n' gets removed before making the rest into the class object doc attribute.

"than itself.");
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The first line of a docstring, if not too long, should not have an embedded \n. So I think this should have been written

"object()\n--\n\n"
"The starting base class of all types and classes other than itself\n"

My suggested replacement would then be

"object()\n--\n\n"
"The base class of the class hierarchy.\n\n"
"When called, it accepts no arguments and returns a new featureless\n"
"instance that has no instance attributes and cannot be given any.\n"

A limit of 72 columns with a 4 column indent allows 68 chars. The longest above is 66.


PyTypeObject PyBaseObject_Type = {
PyVarObject_HEAD_INIT(&PyType_Type, 0)
Expand All @@ -4729,7 +4732,7 @@ PyTypeObject PyBaseObject_Type = {
PyObject_GenericSetAttr, /* tp_setattro */
0, /* tp_as_buffer */
Py_TPFLAGS_DEFAULT | Py_TPFLAGS_BASETYPE, /* tp_flags */
PyDoc_STR("object()\n--\n\nThe most base type"), /* tp_doc */
object_doc, /* tp_doc */
0, /* tp_traverse */
0, /* tp_clear */
object_richcompare, /* tp_richcompare */
Expand Down