Python 2.7.x - problem with obejct.__init__() not accepting *args and **kwargs

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Wed, 15 May 2013 13:16:09 +0100, Oscar Benjamin wrote:


> I don't generally use super() 

Then you should, especially in Python 3.

If you're not using super in single-inheritance classes, then you're 
merely making your own code harder to read and write, and unnecessarily 
difficult for others to use with multiple-inheritance.

If you're not using super in multiple-inheritance[1] classes, then your 
code is probably buggy.

There really is no good reason to avoid super in Python 3.


> but I did see some advice about it in this article:
> https://fuhm.net/super-harmful/

It's not a good article. The article started off claiming that super was 
harmful, hence the URL. He's had to back-pedal, and *hard*. The problem 
isn't that super is harmful, it is that the problem being solved -- 
generalized multiple inheritance -- is inherently a fiendishly difficult 
problem to solve. Using super and cooperative multiple inheritance makes 
it a merely difficult but tractable problem.

The above article is useful to see the sorts of issues that can come up 
in multiple inheritance, and perhaps as an argument for avoiding MI 
(except in the tamed versions provided by mixins or straits). But as an 
argument against super? No.

A much better article about super is:

http://rhettinger.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/super-considered-super/


> From the conclusion:
> "Never use positional arguments in __init__ or __new__. Always use
> keyword args, and always call them as keywords, and always pass all
> keywords on to super."

Even that advice is wrong. See Super Considered Super above.




[1] To be precise: one can write mixin classes without super, and 
strictly speaking mixins are a form of multiple inheritance, but it is a 
simplified version of multiple inheritance that avoids most of the 
complications.


-- 
Steven