Inheriting methods but over-riding docstrings

Steven D'Aprano steven at REMOVE.THIS.cybersource.com.au
Mon Jan 18 00:34:59 EST 2010


On Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:45:17 +0100, Alf P. Steinbach wrote:

> Steven: on a personal note, earlier when I saw you (I think it was you)
> using the "Norwegian Parrot" example I thought it referred to me because
> that was the only sense I could make of it, it followed right after some
> discussion we had. Thus my impression of you or or responses in this
> group was colored by a false interpretation. But, checking, which is
> often a good idea!, and *which I should have done then*, as far as I can
> see the term was first used in this group in April 2001, <url:
> http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.python/browse_thread/
thread/12a125ceddd401e2/c021547a1dc14a41>.
> 
> It's still a mystery to me what it refers to, though... :-)


It refers to the famous Monty Python "Dead Parrot Sketch", involving a 
Norwegian Blue parrot that definitely isn't dead but merely pining for 
the fjords.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~ebarnes/python/dead-parrot.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Parrot


No doubt you'll be able to find it on Youtube.


A little-known FAQ is that Python is named for Monty Python, not the 
snake, and that traditionally metasyntactic variables such as foo, bar 
etc. are frequently named after Monty Python sketches. E.g. I will 
frequently reference the Cheeseshop sketch, the Spanish Inquisition, 
Ethel the Aardvark, Spam (the lunch meat, not the email), and similar.

E.g. instead of foo, bar, baz, we frequently use spam, ham, eggs.


http://www.python.org/doc/faq/general/#why-is-it-called-python




-- 
Steven



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