[Python-Dev] reflections on basestring -- and other abstract
basetypes
Guido van Rossum
guido at python.org
Mon Nov 3 12:43:06 EST 2003
> 1. Shouldn't class UserString.UserString inherit from basestring?
> After all, basestring exists specifically in order to encourage
> typetests of the form isinstance(x, basestring) -- wouldn't it be
> better if such tests could also catch "user-tweaked strings"
> derived from UserString ... ?
I wish I had time for this thread today, but it doesn't look like it.
I just wish to express that we shouldn't lightly mess with this. I
added basestr specifically to support some code that was interested in
testing whether something was one of the *builtin* string types (or a
subclass thereof). But I don't recall details and won't be able to
dig them up today.
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)
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