[Python-Dev] PEP 257 and __init__

[Terry Reedy]

On 12/29/2015 2:40 PM, Fred Drake wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 1:27 PM, Facundo Batista
> <facundobatista at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I was reading PEP 257 and it says that all public methods from a class
>> (including __init__) should have a docstring.
>>
>> Why __init__?
>>
>> It's behaviour is well defined (inits the instance), and the
>> initialization parameters should be described in the class' docstring
>> itself, right?
>
> __init__ is not always the only constructor for a class; each
> constructor's arguments should be documented as part of the
> constructor.

I agree.  >>> help(Someclass) first gives the class docstring, which 
should explain what the class is about, and then each method, with 
signature and docstring.  The explanation of signatures for __new__, 
__init__, and any other constructor methods should follow the name and 
signature of the method.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy