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On 4/17/07, Jean-Paul Calderone <exarkun@divmod.com> wrote:

I just noticed r53997 (from some unit tests it broke), which disallowed things
like this:

    class X(object):
        def __repr__(self):
            return "blah"

    class Y(X, type):

        pass

    class Z:
        __metaclass__ = Y

Making X classic eliminates the TypeError, and is probably an acceptable fix
in a lot of cases (at least as long as classic classes are available).  I

wonder if the ability to override type special methods like this was considered
when the change was made, though?

Probably not, or at least not consciously. I think the point is that 'type' and its subclasses are special enough that this warrants a separate 'X' that inherits from 'type' rather than 'object'. Reduced reusability, but how badly does this affect you in the real world, really?

--
Thomas Wouters <thomas@python.org>

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