Re: [Jython-dev] PyObject __repr__, __str__ and toString

[Samuele P. <sam...@gm...>]

On Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 10:35 AM Jeff Allen <ja...@fa...> wrote:

> We're discussing this in a couple of places already, but I wanted to ask
> here in case there are old hands subscribed who can shed any light.
>
> http://bugs.jython.org/issue2719
>
> https://github.com/jythontools/jython/pull/126
>
> PyObject.java contains some comments I've never understood and have had
> difficulty following
> (
> https://hg.python.org/jython/file/tip/src/org/python/core/PyObject.java#l218).
>
> It seems advice only relevant to those who extend PyObject, which is
> mostly us. And we certainly don't follow it in PyObjectDerived which
> contains the mechanism by which Python authors override __str__ and
> where toString delegates to __repr__.
>
>
for what is worth that comment seems to be from before new-style classes
support, when indeed extending PyObject was easy/natural and was done also
outside of the Jython code base itself often, and the code was following
Java patterns more than the slightly quirky patterns needed to implement
new-style semantics,  so telling people implement toString and the runtime
will do the rest made sense.