[issue45991] Improve ambiguous docstrings in pkgutil
New submission from Kevin Hock <khock@pinterest.com>: # Issue If you search for "list of paths" in https://github.com/KevinHock/cpython/blob/main/Lib/pkgutil.py A lot of people mistake this as `PosixPath`. You can see an example here: https://github.com/duo-labs/parliament/pull/207 that references other OSS repositories. # Solution We can - Change the wording. e.g. "list of strings of the paths" or some variation of that. and perhaps additionally - Throw a ValueError similar to: https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/628abe4463ed40cd54ca952a2b4cc2d6e7407... ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation messages: 407727 nosy: docs@python, khock priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: Improve ambiguous docstrings in pkgutil type: enhancement versions: Python 3.10, Python 3.11, Python 3.6, Python 3.7, Python 3.8, Python 3.9 _______________________________________ Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue45991> _______________________________________
Change by Irit Katriel <iritkatriel@gmail.com>: ---------- keywords: +easy versions: -Python 3.6, Python 3.7, Python 3.8 _______________________________________ Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue45991> _______________________________________
Stanley <ostanley.lee@gmail.com> added the comment: Could you expand a bit on why 'list of paths' in pkgutil is understood by default to be 'list of PosixPath paths'? I would interpret it by default to be string paths if I saw it somewhere without context ---------- nosy: +slateny _______________________________________ Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue45991> _______________________________________
Kevin Hock <khock@pinterest.com> added the comment: At best it is ambiguous, with the class being confused with Str being called Path. Looking up "AttributeError: 'PosixPath' object has no attribute 'startswith'" gives a lot of results for similar issues, so I think the wording could be improved. ---------- _______________________________________ Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue45991> _______________________________________
Stanley <ostanley.lee@gmail.com> added the comment: While it is ambiguous, when there's a path parameter I would default it to string unless otherwise specified. Maybe instead a note could be put in the Pathlib doc noting functions that accept path arguments might not accept Path objects? ---------- _______________________________________ Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue45991> _______________________________________
Barney Gale <barney.gale@gmail.com> added the comment: Should pkgutil call os.fspath() in this case? ---------- nosy: +barneygale _______________________________________ Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue45991> _______________________________________
Kevin Hock <khock@pinterest.com> added the comment:
Maybe instead a note could be put in the Pathlib doc noting functions that accept path arguments might not accept Path objects?
My concern with that is that someone using `pkgutil` wouldn't see it. However, I can see the argument that fixing the 'source' is better than each use. I'm not sure how wide-spread these kind of issues are to weigh in on how many 'uses' there are. If that makes sense.
Should pkgutil call os.fspath() in this case?
I really like that idea. (I haven't contributed to CPython before, so I'll let someone else weigh in on if that is standard practice.) ---------- _______________________________________ Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue45991> _______________________________________
Stanley <ostanley.lee@gmail.com> added the comment: I feel like there might be some backwards compatibility issues if pkgutil wraps it like that, but similarly I'm not at all familiar with how common the package is used and whether it'd be fine to make that change, so I'll also differ judgement here. ---------- _______________________________________ Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue45991> _______________________________________
participants (4)
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Barney Gale -
Irit Katriel
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Kevin Hock
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Stanley