Include the "object" type in the lists of documented types

[cjerdonek]

BPO	16508
Nosy	@birkenfeld, @terryjreedy, @ezio-melotti, @merwok, @bitdancer, @cjerdonek, @vadmium
Files	object-type.patch

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/cjerdonek'
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2012-11-19.00:14:41.072>
labels = ['type-feature', 'docs']
title = 'include the "object" type in the lists of documented types'
updated_at = <Date 2015-07-30.12:43:07.495>
user = 'https://github.com/cjerdonek'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2015-07-30.12:43:07.495>
actor = 'martin.panter'
assignee = 'chris.jerdonek'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Documentation']
creation = <Date 2012-11-19.00:14:41.072>
creator = 'chris.jerdonek'
dependencies = []
files = ['40066']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 16508
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 6.0
messages = ['175938', '176235', '213058', '213267', '213335', '247663']
nosy_count = 9.0
nosy_names = ['georg.brandl', 'terry.reedy', 'ezio.melotti', 'eric.araujo', 'r.david.murray', 'chris.jerdonek', 'docs@python', 'martin.panter', 'mvolz']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'patch review'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue16508'
versions = ['Python 3.4', 'Python 3.5', 'Python 3.6']

Linked PRs

• gh-60712: Include the "object" type in the lists of documented types #103036
• [3.13] gh-60712: Include the "object" type in the lists of documented types (GH-103036) #126197
• [3.12] gh-60712: Include the "object" type in the lists of documented types (GH-103036) #126198

[cjerdonek]

This issue is to add the "object" type to the list of types documented in the language reference's standard type hierarchy and the library reference's list of built-in types:

http://docs.python.org/dev/reference/datamodel.html#the-standard-type-hierarchy
http://docs.python.org/dev/library/stdtypes.html#other-built-in-types

The constructor is documented here:

http://docs.python.org/dev/library/functions.html#object

In the documentation, it might also be worth stating explicitly which of the special methods the object type defines:

http://docs.python.org/dev/reference/datamodel.html#special-method-names

For example, object.__str__ is defined, but object.__bytes__ is not. By doing this, users will know which special methods user-defined classes will automatically inherit.

[terryjreedy]

good idea

[merwok]

I think there was another issue discussing a separation between object.__str__ and someobject.__bytes__, to make it clear which are existing methods of the object class and which are methods that one may implement in their classes.

[bitdancer]

Doing this is going to be a bit tricky, since currently links like :meth:`object.__format__` go to the special methods section. So I think making the distinction between available special methods and ones that object implements will need to be done at the same time as this, and there may be quite a few places in the documentation where reference will need to be changed.

[terryjreedy]

What does not help is that help(ob) omits all the methods inherited from object, *even when ob is object*. See #64484.

[vadmium]

Here is a patch. Perhaps it is what you had in mind. I added quick mentions of the “object” class to The Standard Type Hierarchy and Other Built-in Types. I added documentation of what the object class’s own implementations do where it provides them. I added sentences pointing out that other methods are not provided by the object class, where I thought it may not already be clear. I also added a test case to check that various methods exist or not, to match the documentation.

[furkanonder]

The PR is ready for review.

[hugovk]

Triage: PR merged and backported. Please re-open if there's more to do.