Definitive documentation on newstyle classes? (WAS: Pickling and inheritance are making me hurt)

[Colin J. Williams]

Brian van den Broek wrote:
> Daniel Bickett said unto the world upon 2005-02-05 19:46:
> 
>> I was reading the "Pickling and inheritance are making me hurt"
>> thread, and the latest suggestion (as of this posting) was to do with
>> the __setstate__ and __getstate__ methods. They caught my attention
>> because I hadn't encountered them before, and it reminded me that in
>> the past I've never been able to very good, definitive documentation
>> on newstyle classes. Googling for it gives little python tutorials on
>> various sites, and even searching this newsgroup returns very specific
>> questions, as a rule.
>>
>> Alas, the question: Does there exist a page that enumerates all of the
>> features of the newstyle classes, and explains what they all do? If
>> so, can anyone provide me with such a link?
>>
>> Thanks :-)
> 
> 
> Hi Daniel,
> 
> it doesn't yet answer the "definitive" part, but
> <http://www.python.org/moin/NewClassVsClassicClass> is worth a look.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Brian vdB

Yes, that's the best I've come across.  But a clearer overall view, tied 
in to the Language Reference, would be very helpful.

It would be good to have a clear exposition of the pros and cons of 
__new__ usage.

Colin W.