[Python-Dev] Revert #12085 fix for del attribute error message (original) (raw)

Antoine Pitrou solipsis at pitrou.net
Tue Sep 24 09:34:17 CEST 2013

On Tue, 24 Sep 2013 17:25:10 +1000 Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:

You are setting the bar unreasonably high for an error message that has to convey a complex concept in as few words as possible. There is NO wording that can concisely express the concepts involved without resorting to jargon, because the concepts behind it are *complex and unintuitive*. The current wording is flat out wrong, because the exception isn't being ignored, it's being printed to stderr. If it was genuinely being ignored, people wouldn't complain about it. Jargon that can be easily looked up with a search engine is greatly superior to a message that is simply wrong, as the former provides a gateway to understanding, just like coming across a word you don't understand when reading a novel.

"Unraisable" is not a word I don't understand, it's a word that I understand and which conveys the wrong meaning.

If you want something that people won't understand, you can use something like "asynchronous exception".

Preferring the status quo because you're holding out a forlorn hope for a concise wording that explains:

I've proposed other options.

Regards

Antoine.

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