[Ned]
> Isn't it still good form to mention object as a base class.

I don't think so.  The classes look much cleaner without it.

+1 from for removing (object) from most examples (except for the descriptor howto).

[Terry]
> The respective howto and examples authors should give their 
> OK for deleting '(object)' in case they are trying to keep 
> one text compatible across 2 and 3. I added the other two 
> to the nosy list.

Thanks Terry.  Yes, I would like to keep (object) in the text of the descriptor how-to.  As you said, it keeps the text compatible.  But also, the explicit inheritance from (object) is an aid to clarity in a document that needs to highlight that attribute access occurs in two forms, object.__getattribute__ and type.__getattribute__.