Mailman 3 January 2020 - docs

[issue38649] tkinter messagebox is sloppy
by David Lambert Dec. 25, 2020

Dec. 25, 2020

New submission from David Lambert <b49p23tivg(a)gmail.com>: Does aksokcancel return "true" or True ? The docstring should say True This is pervasive throughout the module. tkinter has such a mishmash of numbers supplied as strings, strings supplied as constants making this carelessness egregious. On the topic of constants, the messagebox module redefines OK. You might argue that the definition didn't change. I suspect this issue applies to all versions of tkinter or Tkinter having the messagebox. # types ABORTRETRYIGNORE = "abortretryignore" OK = "ok" ... # replies ... OK = "ok" def askokcancel(title=None, message=None, **options): "Ask if operation should proceed; return true if the answer is ok" s = _show(title, message, QUESTION, OKCANCEL, **options) return s == OK ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation messages: 355729 nosy: David Lambert, docs@python priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: tkinter messagebox is sloppy type: enhancement versions: Python 3.6 _______________________________________ Python tracker <report(a)bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue38649> _______________________________________

3 4

[issue32501] Documentation for dir([object])
by Vladislavs Burakovs Dec. 24, 2020

Dec. 24, 2020

New submission from Vladislavs Burakovs <solomonchild(a)gmail.com>: Documentation page [1] says "If the object has a method named __dir__(), this method will be called and must return the list of attributes.". It seems that on Python 3.6 it only works if the *class* has a method named __dir__. Should the documentation be changed? Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.16299.192] (c) 2017 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. D:\Users\wlad>python Python 3.6.4 (v3.6.4:d48eceb, Dec 19 2017, 06:04:45) [MSC v.1900 32 bit (Intel)] on win32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> class C: pass ... >>> x = C() >>> import types >>> x.__dir__ = types.MethodType(lambda _:[], x) >>> dir(x) ['__class__', '__delattr__', '__dict__', '__dir__', '__doc__', '__eq__', '__format__', '__ge__', '__getattribute__', '__gt__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__init_subclass__', '__le__', '__lt__', '__module__', '__ne__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__setattr__', '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', '__weakref__'] >>> C.__dir__ = types.MethodType(lambda _:[], x) >>> dir(x) [] [1] https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation messages: 309544 nosy: Vladislavs Burakovs, docs@python priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: Documentation for dir([object]) type: enhancement versions: Python 3.6 _______________________________________ Python tracker <report(a)bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue32501> _______________________________________

5 6

[issue35783] incorrect example of fetching messages in imaplib documentation
by Макс Вернер Dec. 22, 2020

Dec. 22, 2020

New submission from Макс Вернер <mvarnar(a)gmail.com>: An example of fetching messages from the mailbox given in "IMAP4 Example" section is incorrect: typ, data = M.fetch(num, '(RFC822)') print('Message %s\n%s\n' % (num, data[0][1])) "fetch" may return server data that was not requested (see "7.4.2. FETCH Response" section of RFC 3501). In that case "data[0][1]" won't return what user expects. This is a bad example, that many people repeat and advise to other developers: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13210737/get-only-new-emails-imaplib-an… https://gist.github.com/robulouski/7441883 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51098962/check-if-email-inbox-is-empty-… https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21116498/imaplib-not-getting-all-emails… https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2230037/how-to-fetch-an-email-body-usin… I guess, this peculiarity should be clarified in the documentation. I offer to mark this fetching method is not safe and requests careful fetch result parsing. ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation, email messages: 334048 nosy: barry, docs@python, r.david.murray, Макс Вернер priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: incorrect example of fetching messages in imaplib documentation type: enhancement versions: Python 2.7, Python 3.5, Python 3.6, Python 3.7, Python 3.8 _______________________________________ Python tracker <report(a)bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue35783> _______________________________________

2 1

[issue35790] Correct a statement about sys.exc_info() values restoration
by Géry Dec. 21, 2020

Dec. 21, 2020

New submission from Géry <gery.ogam(a)gmail.com>: In the documentation of the try statement (https://docs.python.org/3/reference/compound_stmts.html#the-try-statement), I think that the sentence: "sys.exc_info() values are restored to their previous values (before the call) when returning from a function that handled an exception." should be replaced by this sentence: "sys.exc_info() values are restored to their previous values (before the call) when leaving an exception handler." as proven by this code which does not use any "function that handled an exception" and yet restores sys.exc_info() values: >>> try: ... raise ValueError ... except: ... try: ... raise TypeError ... except: ... print(sys.exc_info()) ... print(sys.exc_info()) ... (<class 'TypeError'>, TypeError(), <traceback object at 0x10ca19bc8>) (<class 'ValueError'>, ValueError(), <traceback object at 0x10ca19c08>) ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation messages: 334092 nosy: docs@python, eric.araujo, ezio.melotti, maggyero, mdk, willingc priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: Correct a statement about sys.exc_info() values restoration versions: Python 3.7 _______________________________________ Python tracker <report(a)bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue35790> _______________________________________

2 6

[issue37717] argparse subcommand docs has non-existent parameter "action"
by retnikt Dec. 19, 2020

Dec. 19, 2020

New submission from retnikt <retnikt(a)gmail.com>: In the library documentation for argparse, the section for ArgumentParser.add_subparsers ( https://docs.python.org/3/library/argparse.html#sub-commands ) states that there is a parameter for 'action' with the description 'the basic type of action to be taken when this argument is encountered at the command line'. However, no such parameter actually exists, and passing it to the function causes very strange behaviour: Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "/usr/lib/python3.6/argparse.py", line 1716, in add_subparsers action = parsers_class(option_strings=[], **kwargs) TypeError: __init__() got an unexpected keyword argument 'parser_class' This line should be removed from the documentation. It is present in versions 3.4+ and 2.7 ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation messages: 348718 nosy: docs@python, retnikt priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: argparse subcommand docs has non-existent parameter "action" type: behavior versions: Python 2.7, Python 3.5, Python 3.6, Python 3.7, Python 3.8, Python 3.9 _______________________________________ Python tracker <report(a)bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue37717> _______________________________________

3 4

[issue23522] Misleading note in Statistics module documentation
by Jake Dec. 19, 2020

Dec. 19, 2020

New submission from Jake: In the statistics module documentation, there is a note that states that "The mean is strongly affected by outliers and is not a robust estimator for central location: the mean is not necessarily a typical example of the data points. For more robust, although less efficient, measures of central location, see median() and mode()" https://docs.python.org/3/library/statistics.html While I appreciate the intention, this is quite misleading. The implication is that the mean, median and mode are different ways to estimate one "central location", however, in reality they are very different things (albeit which refer to a similar notion). The sample mean is an unbiased estimator of the true mean but it need not be unbiased as an estimator of the true median or modes and vice versa for the median and mode. To make this clearer I would rephrase to "The mean is strongly affected by outliers and is not necessarily representative of the central tendency of the data. For cases with large outliers or very low sample size, see median() and mode()" Apologies if this is seen as frivolous, but statistics can be hard enough to remain very clear about even when the words are used precisely. ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation messages: 236612 nosy: Journeyman08, docs@python priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: Misleading note in Statistics module documentation type: enhancement versions: Python 3.4 _______________________________________ Python tracker <report(a)bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue23522> _______________________________________

5 11

[issue39096] Description of "Format Specification Mini-Language" not accurate for Decimal
by Michael Amrhein Dec. 18, 2020

Dec. 18, 2020

New submission from Michael Amrhein <michael(a)adrhinum.de>: The description of the "Format Specification Mini-Language" states for float and Decimal regarding presentation type 'f': "The default precision is 6." Regarding presentation type None it reads: "Similar to 'g', except that fixed-point notation, when used, has at least one digit past the decimal point." While both statements are accurate for float, they don't hold for Decimal. In order to preserve the information about the decimal exponent, in both cases Decimal formatting displays as many fractional digits as dictated by it's exponent. ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation messages: 358667 nosy: docs@python, mamrhein priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: Description of "Format Specification Mini-Language" not accurate for Decimal type: behavior versions: Python 3.6, Python 3.7, Python 3.8, Python 3.9 _______________________________________ Python tracker <report(a)bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue39096> _______________________________________

6 19

[issue39416] Document default numeric string formats
by Karl O. Pinc Dec. 16, 2020

Dec. 16, 2020

New submission from Karl O. Pinc <kop(a)karlpinc.com>: Seems sane to put _some_ restrictions on the string representations of the Numeric classes. This would be a change to the Python language specification. Suggestions made in a pull request. See the email thread: Subject: Documenting Python's float.__str__() https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/thread/FV22TKT3… ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation messages: 360442 nosy: docs@python, kop priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: Document default numeric string formats _______________________________________ Python tracker <report(a)bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue39416> _______________________________________

4 15

[issue14586] TypeError: truncate() takes no keyword arguments
by Guy Taylor Dec. 15, 2020

Dec. 15, 2020

New submission from Guy Taylor <thebigguy.co.uk(a)gmail.com>: The Python docs suggest that io.IOBase.truncate' should take a keyword argument of 'size'. However this causes a 'TypeError': TypeError: truncate() takes no keyword arguments Suggest that the docs are changed to 'truncate(size)' or CPython is changed to allow the keyword. http://docs.python.org/py3k/library/io.html?highlight=truncate#io.IOBase.tr… http://docs.python.org/library/io.html?highlight=truncate#io.IOBase.truncate ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation, Interpreter Core files: test.py messages: 158308 nosy: TheBiggerGuy, docs@python priority: normal severity: normal status: open title: TypeError: truncate() takes no keyword arguments type: behavior versions: Python 2.7, Python 3.2 Added file: http://bugs.python.org/file25219/test.py _______________________________________ Python tracker <report(a)bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue14586> _______________________________________

6 15

[issue26515] Update extending/embedding docs to new way to build modules in C
by Brett Cannon Dec. 15, 2020

Dec. 15, 2020

New submission from Brett Cannon: https://docs.python.org/3/extending/extending.html#a-simple-example uses PyModule_Create() instead of PyModuleDef_Init(). ---------- assignee: docs@python components: Documentation messages: 261398 nosy: brett.cannon, docs@python, eric.snow, ncoghlan priority: normal severity: normal stage: needs patch status: open title: Update extending/embedding docs to new way to build modules in C versions: Python 3.5, Python 3.6 _______________________________________ Python tracker <report(a)bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue26515> _______________________________________

5 7