[Python-ideas] Changing str(someclass) to return only the class name

[Éric Araujo]

Hi,

Le 28/10/2011 19:51, Guido van Rossum a écrit :
> On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 9:15 AM, Éric Araujo <merwok at netwok.org> wrote:
>> Hm.  Sometimes we want the class name, sometimes module.class, so even
>> with the change we won’t always be able to use str(cls).
> It is a well-known fact of humanity that you can't please anyone.
> There's not that much data on how often the full name is better; my
> hunch however is that most of the time the class name is sufficiently
> unique within the universe of classes that could be printed, and
> showing the module name just feels pedantic. Apps that know just the
> name is sub-optimal should stick to rendering using cls.__module__ and
> cls.__name__.

Fair enough.

>> The output of repr and str is not (TTBOMK) exactly defined or
>> guaranteed; nonetheless, I expect that many people (including me) rely
>> on some conversions (like the fact that repr('somestr') includes
>> quotes).  So we can change str(cls) and say that *now* it has defined
>> output, or leave it alone to avoid breaking code that does depend on the
>> output, which can be seen as a wrong thing or a pragmatic thing (“I need
>> it and it works”).
> In my view, str() and repr() are both for human consumption (though in
> somewhat different contexts). If tweaking them helps humans understand
> the output better then let's tweak them. If you as a developer feel
> particularly anal about how you want your object printed, you should
> avoid repr() or str() and write your own formatting function.
> 
> If as a programmer you feel the urge to go parse the output of repr()
> or str(), you should always *know* that a future version of Python can
> break your code, and you should file a feature request to have an API
> added to the class so you won't have to parse the repr() or str().

Okay!  I will update the patch to change str(func) and str(module).  As
it’s a debugging aid meant for human, I won’t update the doc or stdlib
to recommend using str(x) instead of x.__name__ and everyone should be
happy (or complain before the final release).

Cheers