[New-bugs-announce] [issue39443] Inhomogeneous behaviour for descriptors in between the class-instance and metaclass-class pairs

[Hugo Ricateau]

New submission from Hugo Ricateau <hugo.ricateau at gmail.com>:

Assume one has defined the following descriptor:
```
class Descriptor:
    def __set__(self, instance, value):
        print('SET')
```

On the one hand, for the class-instance pair, the behaviour is as follows:
```
class FirstClass:
    descriptor = Descriptor()

    def __init__(self):
        self.descriptor = None

FirstClass().descriptor = None
```
results in "SET" being displayed twice; i.e. both assignations triggered the __set__ method of the descriptor.

On the other hand, for the metaclass-class pair, the behaviour is the following:
```
class SecondClassMeta(type):
    descriptor = Descriptor()

class SecondClass(metaclass=SecondClassMeta):
    descriptor = None

SecondClass.descriptor = None
```
results in "SET" being displayed only once: the first assignation (the one in the class definition) did not triggered __set__.

It looks to me like an undesirable asymmetry between the descriptors behaviour when in classes vs when in metaclasses. Is that intended? If it is, I think it should be highlighted in the descriptors documentation.

Best

----------
components: Interpreter Core
messages: 360623
nosy: Hugo Ricateau
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: Inhomogeneous behaviour for descriptors in between the class-instance and metaclass-class pairs
type: behavior
versions: Python 3.6, Python 3.7, Python 3.8

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue39443>
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