Inheriting doc strings. What are the options?

[Michele Simionato]

Chad Netzer <cnetzer at mail.arc.nasa.gov> wrote in message news:<mailman.1051912806.29766.python-list at python.org>...
> I'd like derived classes to inherit the docstrings of their base
> classes, unless overridden.  Or at least, a simple way to do it
> explicitly (perhaps using metaclasses?)

Warning: very little tested!

def setdocstring(cls,name,bases,dic):
    if not dic.get('__doc__'):
        cls.__doc__=bases[0].__doc__
        
class InheritableDocString(object):
    class __metaclass__(type):
        __init__=setdocstring
        
class A(InheritableDocString):
    "A.__doc__"

class B(A):
    pass

print B.__doc__


                                Michele