subclassing Exceptions

[phawkins at spamnotconnact.com]

Here's some exception behaviour I don't get.  If I simply define an
exception class and use "pass" for the body, I can pass in arguments
when I raise it (see passException, below).  If, like Sheila, I define
__str__, I can no longer pass in arguments -- even if I define __str__
with an argument -- see strException, and strExceptionWithArg.

Do I need to use variable args?  No, that doesn't do the trick... see
varArgsStrException below.

>>> class strException(Exception):
	def __str__(self):
		return "string cheese?"

	
>>> raise strException
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "<pyshell#4>", line 1, in ?
    raise strException
strException: string cheese?
>>> class strExceptionWithArg(Exception):
	def __str__(self,m):
		return "string cheese? " + m

	
>>> raise strExceptionWithArg, "no thanks"
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "<pyshell#7>", line 1, in ?
    raise strExceptionWithArg, "no thanks"
strExceptionWithArg: <unprintable instance object>
>>> class passException(Exception):
	pass

>>> raise passException
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "<pyshell#11>", line 1, in ?
    raise passException
passException: 
>>> raise passException, "no thanks"
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "<pyshell#12>", line 1, in ?
    raise passException, "no thanks"
passException: no thanks

>>> class varArgsStrException(Exception):
	def __str__(self, *args):
		return "string cheese? " + str(args)

>>> raise varArgsStrException, "no thanks"
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "<pyshell#18>", line 1, in ?
    raise varArgsStrException, "no thanks"
varArgsStrException: string cheese? ()