| msg260034 - (view) |
Author: Nicholas Chammas (nchammas) * |
Date: 2016-02-10 19:52 |
| The docs for `bytes.translate()` [0] show the following signature: ``` bytes.translate(table[, delete]) ``` However, calling this method with keyword arguments yields: ``` >>> b''.translate(table='la table', delete=b'delete') Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in TypeError: translate() takes no keyword arguments ``` I'm guessing other methods have this same issue. (e.g. `str.translate()`) Do the docs need to be updated, or should these methods be updated to accept keyword arguments, or something else? [0] https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#bytes.translate |
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| msg260035 - (view) |
Author: SilentGhost (SilentGhost) *  |
Date: 2016-02-10 20:21 |
| I don't think docs suggest that in any way. The keyword arguments are typically described like this: https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#str.split bytes.translate has a typical signature of a function with optional positional arguments. |
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| msg260039 - (view) |
Author: Nicholas Chammas (nchammas) * |
Date: 2016-02-10 21:31 |
| So you're saying if `bytes.translate()` accepted keyword arguments, its signature would look something like this? ``` bytes.translate(table, delete=None) ``` I guess I was under the mistaken assumption that argument names in the docs always matched keyword arguments in the signature. But you're right, a strictly positional argument (I guess specified via something like `args*`?) doesn't have a name. |
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| msg260211 - (view) |
Author: Terry J. Reedy (terry.reedy) *  |
Date: 2016-02-12 23:22 |
| This is a known, generic issue with c-coded functions. Some C functions have been converted, especially those with boolean parameters, and especially those with multiple boolean parameters. I think, but an not sure, that / is sometimes used to signal that the preceding are position only, and that this may have something to do with ArgumentClinic. I also would like a consistent indication. But this may be a duplicate issue. |
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| msg260214 - (view) |
Author: Nicholas Chammas (nchammas) * |
Date: 2016-02-12 23:41 |
| Yep, you're right. I'm just understanding now that we have lots of methods defined in C which have signatures like this. Is there an umbrella issue, perhaps, that covers adding support for keyword-based arguments to functions defined in C, like `translate()`? |
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| msg260272 - (view) |
Author: Martin Panter (martin.panter) * |
Date: 2016-02-14 10:51 |
| Nicholas, there is Issue 8706 about converting functions and methods to accept keywords in general. There is also the slash “/” indicator proposed by PEP 457, which is used for some functions in pydoc; bytes.replace() for instance. In Issue 23738 I was trying to get some consensus on using this slash notation in the main documentation, in which case bytes.translate() could look like bytes.translate(table, delete=b"", /) And there is Issue 21314 about where to document the slash notation that is already used in pydoc. |
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