__getattribute__ doesn't work on 'type' type for '__class__'

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

Barry Kelly a écrit :
> I'm running this version of Python:
> 
>   Python 2.4.3 (#1, May 18 2006, 07:40:45) 
>   [GCC 3.3.3 (cygwin special)] on cygwin
> 
> I read in the documentation that these two expressions are
> interchangeable:
> 
>   x.__getattribute__('name') <==> x.name

I wouldn't say they are interchangeable. FWIW, __getattribute__ starts 
and ends with two underscores which in Python - and a lot of other 
languages - has a very strong 'language internals, black magic stuff, 
not intented for direct client code use'.

> 
> Yet when I try this with the 'type' type, it doesn't work:
> 
> ---8<---
> 
>>>>x.__class__.__class__
> 
> <type 'type'>
> 
>>>>x.__class__.__getattribute__('__class__')

You're calling __getattribute__ on x.__class__, not on 
x.__class__.__class__. But anyway, __getattribute__ is a descriptor, 
which implies different behaviour when called on a class object. Please 
read the doc on the descriptor protocol. For making long things short,
   instance.__getattribute__('attrname')
translates to
   klass.__getattribute__(instance, 'attrname')

> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
> TypeError: descriptor '__getattribute__' requires a 'int' object but
> received a 'str'

I deduce from this that your 'x' is an int. Since you're calling 
__getattribute__ on the type 'int', you have to pass an int as the first 
parameter, ie:

 >>> x = 1
 >>> x.__class__.__getattribute__(x, '__class__')
<type 'int'>

Note BTW that it returns x.__class__, not x.__class__.__class__