[Python-Dev] Third and hopefully final post: PEP 557, Data Classes

[Carl Meyer]

On 11/29/2017 05:02 PM, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> I tried to look up the discussion but didn't find much except that you
> flagged this as an issue. To repeat, your concern is that isdataclass()
> applies to *instances*, not classes, which is how Eric has designed it,
> but you worry that either through the name or just because people don't
> read the docs it will be confusing. What do you suppose we do? I think
> making it work for classes as well as for instances would cause another
> category of bugs (confusion between cases where a class is needed vs. an
> instance abound in other situations -- we don't want to add to that).
> Maybe it should raise TypeError when passed a class (unless its
> metaclass is a dataclass)? Maybe it should be renamed to
> isdataclassinstance()? That's a mouthful, but I don't know how common
> the need to call this is, and people who call it a lot can define their
> own shorter alias.

Yeah, I didn't propose a specific fix because I think there are several
options (all mentioned in this thread already), and I don't really have
strong feelings about them:

1) Keep the existing function and name, let it handle either classes or
instances. I agree that this is probably not the best option available,
though IMO it's still marginally better than the status quo).

2) Punt the problem by removing the function; don't add it to the public
API at all until we have demonstrated demand.

3) Rename it to "is_dataclass_instance" (and maybe also keep a separate
"is_dataclass" for testing classes directly). (Then there's also the
choice about raising TypeError vs just returning False if a function is
given the wrong type; I think TypeError is better.)

Carl



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