My Python annoyances

[Ben Collver]

Chris Mellon wrote:
> #python is one of the most accepting communities around. If the bug
> reports here and the way you've presented them in this thread (vs the
> way that they appear to an outside observer) are any indication,
> though, I'm not surprised that you might have left in a huff.
> 
> Bear in mind that #python has no special status with regards to python
> development and is primarily a community of *users*. If you go in with
> some sort of thing you consider a problem, you are likely to be shown
> a solution. Debate over whether it should be fixed in the core is
> likely to be met with "patches accepted".

I generally use IRC for idle chat and mulling over problems, and I 
realize it would be the wrong place to ask for a change.  At the time I 
was talking about XML in the Python library.  I was informed that I was 
unwise to read 3rd party documentation for the Python library.  I get 
"Don't complain about documentation we didn't write" instead of "Yeah 
it's broken, use pyxml instead."

>> It is problem report #1678102.  I understand the problem: that a 32 bit
>> number looks different in a 32 bit signed int than in a 64 bit signed
>> int.  However, the workaround of dropping a bit seems to defeat the
>> purpose of using a CRC.
>>
> 
> That's a valid point. Maybe you should have responded on the tracker
> with that viewpoint. Your characterization of what happened in your
> original post borders on dishonest - how can you possibly view what
> happened there as "bug reports not welcomed"?

I made a mistake when I first read the response: it does not drop any bits.

In the bug report itself, I saw a diagnosis of my problem's cause, and 
then I saw the bug report closed as invalid.  I did not know why the bug 
was flagged invalid and closed, because I received no comment from the 
person who closed it.  I assumed that I should not have filed the bug 
report.

Feedback in this newsgroup names my bug report as a "hobby horse", a 
"wart", and "not a real bug report".  I apologize for this noise over 
such a small issue.  It is clear now that real bug reports are welcome.

> Code like this is working directly against Python philosophy. You
> probably got told this on #python, too. There's hardly any
> circumstance where you should need to validate the exact class of an
> object, and as long as they have the same interface theres no harm
> whatsoever in tempfile changing it's return value between Python
> versions.

I am unqualified to comment on the Python philosophy, but I would like 
for my function to do some basic error checking on its arguments.  I 
will read up on the Python philosophy.

Ben