[thread moved, since I can't put in proper References headers, anyway, just by looking at the archive]

1. I rewrite the stuff that went into exceptions.py in C, and stick it

in the _exceptions module. I don't much like this idea, since it kills the advantage noted above.

2. I leave the stuff that's in C already in C. I add C __str__ methods

to AttributeError and NameError, which dispatch to helper functions in the python 'exceptions' module, if that module is available.

Which is better, or is there a third choice available?

There is a third choice: Patch AttributeError afterwards. I.e. in site.py, say

_AttributeError_str(self): code

AttributeError.__str__ = _AttributeError_str

Guido said

This kind of user-friendliness should really be in the tools, not in the core language implementation!

And I think Nick's patch exactly follows this guideline. Currently, the C code raising AttributeError tries to be friendly, formatting a string, and passing it to the AttributeError.__init__. With his patch, the AttributeError just gets enough information so that tools later can be friendly - actually printing anything is done in Python code.

Fred said

I see no problem with the functionality from Nick's patch; this is exactly te sort of thing what's needed, including at the basic interactive prompt.

I agree. Much of the strength of this approach is lost if it only works inside tools. When I get an AttributeError, I'd like to see right away what the problem is. If I had to fire up IDLE and re-run it first, I'd rather stare at my code long enough to see the problem.

Regards, Martin