ACCEPTED: PEP 285

[David Bolen]

James Logajan <JamesL at Lugoj.com> writes:

> Thank you. I only just resubscribed to comp.lang.python after many months 
> of absence and was only reading a handful of articles of immediate interest 
> and was not following the PEP 285 thread until Guid posted the ACCEPTED 
> message. When I looked at it I saw a "class bool(int)" definition, so I 
> wasn't sure how instances of such a (pseudo?) class would be handled in a 
> dictionary.

The class definition in the PEP does pretty much answer this because
it shows the inheritance from the built-in "int" type, but I agree you
need to work it through mentally (or test via the CVS Python) - it's
not explicitly shown in the PEP.

>   (...)                                      I assumed the "ACCEPTED: PEP 
> 285" posting would have subsumed previous discussions, including any 
> concerning the class instances as dictionary keys. I couldn't find a clear 
> answer there, hence my question.

There were several lengthy threads that cropped up in response to
Guido's original posting of the PEP (which in turn followed a lengthy
discussion on the python-dev list).  The ACCEPTED thread was just
Guido's final decision, so it's unlikely it would automatically
duplicate much of the prior discussion.

> My apologies to those who have sent me angry e-mails for not realizing that 
> PEPs do not stand alone from the lengthy discussion threads on Usenet. The 
> fault is entirely mine.

I'm not sure any angry comments were called for (hope you didn't take
mine in that vein), but I do think that in a case like this, it's a
good idea to review prior threads (e.g., with google for the
newsgroup) and perhaps python-dev archives.  At a minimum in a case
like this - and particularly if you're going to point out a lack of
response to a question of yours - searching for all posts/e-mail by
Guido first to see if perhaps the question already arose can't hurt :-)

--
-- David
-- 
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------\
 \               David Bolen            \   E-mail: db3l at fitlinxx.com  /
  |             FitLinxx, Inc.            \  Phone: (203) 708-5192    |
 /  860 Canal Street, Stamford, CT  06902   \  Fax: (203) 316-5150     \
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------/