[Python-Dev] Standardize error message for non-pickleable types

[Terry Reedy]

On 10/29/2018 5:17 PM, MRAB wrote:
> On 2018-10-29 19:38, Serhiy Storchaka wrote:
>> When you try to to pickle or copy a non-pickleable object, you will get
>> an error. In most cases this will be a TypeError with one of few
>> similar, but different variants:
>>
>>     "can't pickle XXX objects" (default)
>>     "Cannot serialize XXX object" (socket, BZ2Compressor, 
>> BZ2Decompressor)
>>     "can not serialize a 'XXX' object" (buffered files in _pyio)
>>     "cannot serialize 'XXX' object" (FileIO, TextWrapperIO, WinConsoleIO,
>> buffered files in _io, LZMACompressor, LZMADecompressor)
>>     "cannot serialize {} object" (proposed for SSLContext)
>>
>> Perhaps some of them where added without deep thinking and then were
>> replicated in different places. I'm going to replace all of them with a
>> standardized error message.

Great idea.

>> But I'm unsure what variant is better.
>>
>> 1. "pickle" or "serialize"?
>>
>> 2. "can't", "Cannot", "can not" or "cannot"?
>>
>> 3. "object" or "objects"?
>>
>> 4. Use the "a" article or not?
>>
>> 5. Use quotes around type name or not?
>>
>> Please help me to choose the best variant.
>>
> 1. If you're pickling, then saying "pickle" is more helpful.
> 
> 2. In English the usual long form is "cannot". Error messages tend to 
> avoid abbreviations,

Agree x 3

> and also tend to have lowercase after the colon, e.g.:
> 
>      "ZeroDivisionError: division by zero"
> 
>      "ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'foo'"

I had not noticed, but

IndexError: list index out of range
NameError: name 'sqrt' is not defined

> 3. If it's failing on an object (singular), then it's clearer to say 
> "object".
> 
> 4. Articles tend to be omitted.

Grammatically, the two examples above could/should start with 'The'. 
But that is routinely omitted.  Matching a/an to 'xxx' would be a 
terrible nuisance.  "a 'str'" (a string)?, "an 'str'" (an ess tee ar)?


> 5. Error messages tend to have quotes around the type name.
> 
> Therefore, my preference is for:
> 
>      "cannot pickle 'XXX' object"
+1

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy