Problem of Readability of Python

[kiilerix at gmail.com]

On Oct 7, 10:24 pm, al... at mac.com (Alex Martelli) wrote:
> $ python -mtimeit -s'class A(object):pass' -s'a=A()' 'a.zop=23'

When I know that all instances of classes inheriting from object have
a namespace, then I would expect either that all objects have a
namespace or that it was inherited from object. I would expect
instantiating object to be the simplest and best way to get a
namespace.

But ...

>>> o = object()
>>> o.foo = 7
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'object' object has no attribute 'foo'
>>> o.__slot__
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'object' object has no attribute '__slot__'
>>> class O(object): pass
>>> o = O()
>>> o.foo = 7

That object is kind of "pure virtual" seems to me to be a confusing
special case without any advantages.

Why can't object be instantiated directly? Is that explained and
documented anywhere?

/Mads