[Python-Dev] Possible bug in class-init, lookin for mentors (original) (raw)

Erik Bray erik.m.bray at gmail.com
Tue May 2 12:01:25 EDT 2017

On Fri, Apr 21, 2017 at 12:09 PM, Justus Schwabedal <jschwabedal at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi everyone,

I possibly found a bug in class initialization and would like to fix it. Because it's my first journey to core-dev, I would really appreciate the help of a mentor that I may ask a few questions to get me up to speed. To my person, I have previously worked on larger projects in python, c, and c++ if that information helps, and I'm really curious to learn more about the interiors of the greatest interpreter known to wo-/men. Here comes the bug-producing example: class Foo:_ _def _init_(self, bar=[]):_ _self.list = bar_ _spam1 = Foo()_ _spam2 = Foo()_ _spam1.list.append(42)_ _print(spam2.list) At least I think it's a bug. Maybe it's a feature..

Sorry to resurrect an old-ish thread; I haven't looked at Python-dev in several weeks. I just wanted to point out that while everyone on this thread pointed out how this isn't a bug (clear to anyone who's spent enough time with Python), we have here an experienced C/C++ developer who is interested in helping out on Python core devel, and no one took him up on that offer.

Jus, for what it's worth, there are a slew of actual Python bugs to be worked on--many languishing for years--due to lack of available developer time. You can have a good look at the (daunting) list of bugs at the old bugs.python.org [1]. IIUC Python development is slowly moving over to GitHub, but the issue list hasn't migrated yet so that would still be the place to start.

If you find a bug that looks worth your time to try to fix, you should probably follow up on the issue for that bug itself. I can't make any promises anyone will have time for mentorship, but I'd be willing to point you in the right direction. I'm not a core developer but I know Python internals reasonably well and might be able to help depending on the issue.

Best, Erik

[1] http://bugs.python.org/

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