[Python-Dev] unsubscriptable vs object does not support indexing

[Michael Foord]

Brett Cannon wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 14:19, Michael Foord <fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk> wrote:
> [SNIP]
>   
>> Also +1. I had a friend (an experienced programmer) who started using Python
>> recently. The cryptic nature of some of the error messages was a sore point
>> with him.
>>     
>
> Do you know which error messages? We can change them. We have always
> said that we view exception messages as something that can change in
> minor releases and that you should be very careful if you ever use
> them in tests.
>   

There were a couple and I can only remember the last one he talked 
about. He ran some code with "python -3" that used someone else's 
library and resulted in the following warning, that he felt was cryptic:

    DeprecationWarning: Overriding __eq__ blocks inheritance of __hash__ 
in 3.x

Hmm... not entirely sure how we can make it clearer. There is a great 
blog entry on the subject by Eric Lippert though (Microsoft I'm afraid):

    http://blogs.msdn.com/ericlippert/archive/2006/07/07/659259.aspx

Error messages: diagnostic is preferable to prescriptive

    * Polite: making the user feel like an idiot is very, very bad.
    * Readable: poor grammar and tortured sentence structure is bad.
    * Accurate: error messages must accurately describe the problem.
    * Precise: "Something is wrong" is an accurate error message but not 
a very precise one!
    * Diagnostic but not prescriptive: describe the problem, not the 
solution.

How about (?):

    If you implement equality (__eq__) you should also implement hashing 
(__hash__), it won't be inherited in 3.x.

Although that is prescriptive of course...

Michael
> -Brett
>   


-- 
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http://www.voidspace.org.uk/blog