meta-class troubles

[Ethan Furman]

Good Day!

I am stuck... hopefully a few fresh pairs of eyes will spot what I am 
missing.

I have a metaclass, Traits, and two different testing files, 
test_traits.py and tests.py.  test_traits works fine, tests generates 
the following error:

C:\Python31\Lib\site-packages\traits\tests>\python31\python tests.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "tests.py", line 4, in <module>
     class TraitConflict(meta=Traits, traits=(BoxPrint, BigBoxPrint)):
TypeError: type() takes 1 or 3 arguments


Working code from test_traits.py:
class DerivedClass(metaclass=Traits, traits=(TBundle1, TBundle2)):
     def repeat(yo, text, count):
         print('whatever...')
     def whatsit(yo, arg1):
         print("calling baseclass's whatsit...")
         print(super().whatsit(arg1))

Failing code from tests.py:
class TraitConflict(meta=Traits, traits=(BoxPrint, BigBoxPrint)):
     def useless(yo):
         print("this class won't compile")


Any clues or pointers *greatly* appreciated!

~Ethan~
--
Traits is homegrown, the idea based on Michele Simionato's Simple Traits 
experiment.  It was intrigueing, and I wanted to see if I could 
implement something similar in Python 3.  Any ideas now on what to do 
with it will also be greatly appreciated!  :)