I've recently been implementing docstring support for Boost.Python extension classes (and in particular, their methods). I have a callable type which wraps all C++ functions and member functions -- it basically looks like a minimal subset of Python's function type, with a tp_descr_get slot which does the same thing that funcobject.c's func_descr_get() does: static PyObject * function_descr_get(PyObject *func, PyObject *obj, PyObject *type_) { if (obj == Py_None) obj = NULL; return PyMethod_New(func, obj, type_); } So I just recently added a descriptor for the "__doc__" string attribute, and I thought I'd try help() on one of these methods: ***************************************************************** Failure in example: help(X) from line #2 of __main__ Exception raised: Traceback (most recent call last): File "doctest.py", line 430, in _run_examples_inner compileflags, 1) in globs File "<string>", line 1, in ? File "c:\tools\python-2.2.1\lib\site.py", line 279, in __call__ return pydoc.help(*args, **kwds) File "c:\tools\python-2.2.1\lib\pydoc.py", line 1510, in __call__ self.help(request) File "c:\tools\python-2.2.1\lib\pydoc.py", line 1546, in help else: doc(request, 'Help on %s:') File "c:\tools\python-2.2.1\lib\pydoc.py", line 1341, in doc pager(title % (desc + suffix) + '\n\n' + text.document(thing, name)) File "c:\tools\python-2.2.1\lib\pydoc.py", line 268, in document if inspect.isclass(object): return apply(self.docclass, args) File "c:\tools\python-2.2.1\lib\pydoc.py", line 1093, in docclass lambda t: t[1] == 'method') File "c:\tools\python-2.2.1\lib\pydoc.py", line 1035, in spill name, mod, object)) File "c:\tools\python-2.2.1\lib\pydoc.py", line 269, in document if inspect.isroutine(object): return apply(self.docroutine, args) File "c:\tools\python-2.2.1\lib\pydoc.py", line 1116, in docroutine realname = object.__name__ AttributeError: 'Boost.Python.function' object has no attribute '__name__' ***************************************************************** It seems I'm breaking some protocol. It's easy enough to add a '__name__' attribute to my function objects, but I'd like to be sure that I'm adding everything I really /should/ add. Just how much like a regular Python function does my function have to be in order to make the help system (and other standard systems with such expectations) happy? TIA, Dave ----------------------------------------------------------- David Abrahams * Boost Consulting dave@boost-consulting.com * http://www.boost-consulting.com