[Python-Dev] Should inspect.getargspec take any callable? (original) (raw)

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Sat Jan 16 22:32:55 EST 2016

On 17 January 2016 at 03:23, Andrew Barnert via Python-Dev <python-dev at python.org> wrote:

On Jan 16, 2016, at 08:05, Aviv Cohn via Python-Dev <python-dev at python.org> wrote:

The getargspec function in the inspect module enforces the input parameter to be either a method or a function.

The getargspec already works with classes, callable objects, and some builtins. It's also deprecated, in part because its API can't handle various features (like keyword-only arguments). There is an extended version that can handle some of those features, but as of 3.5 that one is deprecated as well. The signature function is much easier to use, as well as being more powerful.

As Andrew states here, the limitations of getargspec() and getfullargspec() are why they were deprecated in favour of inspect.signature() in Python 3.3: https://docs.python.org/3/library/inspect.html#introspecting-callables-with-the-signature-object

The funcsigs project provides a backport of much of that functionality to earlier Python versions: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/funcsigs

Cheers, Nick.

-- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan at gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list