[New-bugs-announce] [issue10988] Descriptor protocol documentation for super bindings is incorrect

Joshua Arnold report at bugs.python.org
Sun Jan 23 19:38:05 CET 2011


New submission from Joshua Arnold <josharnold52 at gmail.com>:

In 'Doc/reference/datamodel.rst', the 'Invoking Descriptors' documentation specifies the following behavior for super objects:

[snip]
Super Binding
   If ``a`` is an instance of :class:`super`, then the binding ``super(B,
   obj).m()`` searches ``obj.__class__.__mro__`` for the base class ``A``
   immediately preceding ``B`` and then invokes the descriptor with the call:
   ``A.__dict__['m'].__get__(obj, A)``.
[snip]

In the above paragrah, the call:

   A.__dict__['m'].__get__(obj, A)
   
is incorrect.  In reality, the descriptor is invoked via:

   A.__dict__['m'].__get__(obj, obj.__class__)
   
Loosely speaking, the 'owner' argument is set to the subclass associated with the super object, not the superclass.  There is a similar error in the 'Descriptor HowTo Guide' under 'Invoking Descriptors'

(Strictly speaking, the specification is inaccurate on some other points.  It assumes obj is not a class and doesn't state that the entire mro preceding 'B' is searched for 'm'.  But those may be considered simplifications for the sake of brevity)

I considered reporting this as a bug in the implementation rather than the specification.  But I think the implementation's algorithm is the correct one.  In particular, it yields the desired behavior for classmethods   In any case, the current behavior has been around for a while (it was the fix for issue #535444, dating back to 2.2)

Code demonstrating the current behavior:

class Desc(object):
    def __get__(self, instance, owner):
        return owner

class A(object):
    attr = Desc()

class B(A):
    pass

class C(B):
    pass

instance = C()

assert super(B,instance).attr == C
assert super(B,C).attr == C

#According to the specification, the assertions should be:
#assert super(B,instance).attr == A
#assert super(B,C).attr == A

----------
assignee: docs at python
components: Documentation
messages: 126895
nosy: Joshua.Arnold, docs at python
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: Descriptor protocol documentation for super bindings is incorrect
versions: Python 2.5, Python 2.6, Python 2.7, Python 3.1, Python 3.2

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue10988>
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