[Python-Dev] python and super (original) (raw)

Steven D'Aprano steve at pearwood.info
Sun Apr 17 03:48:07 CEST 2011

Michael Foord wrote:

On 15/04/2011 02:23, Steven D'Aprano wrote: [...]

If we treat django's failure to use super as a bug, you want the Python language to work-around that bug so that: What you say (that this particular circumstance could be treated as a bug in django) is true, however consider the "recently" introduced problem caused by object.init not taking arguments. This makes it impossible to use super correctly in various circumstances. [...] It is impossible to inherit from both C and A and have all parent init methods called correctly. Changing the semantics of super as described would fix this problem.

So you say. I don't have an an opinion on whether or not you are technically correct, but adding DWIM black-magic to super scares me. It scares me even if it were guaranteed to only apply to init, but if it applied to arbitrary methods, it frankly terrifies me.

If it were limited to only apply to init, there would be a constant stream of requests that we loosen the restriction and "make super just work" for all methods, despite the dangers of DWIM code.

-- Steven

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