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Author terry.reedy
Recipients terry.reedy
Date 2008-08-27.01:51:32
SpamBayes Score 3.722038e-09
Marked as misclassified No
Message-id <1219801896.33.0.491668230509.issue3693@psf.upfronthosting.co.za>
In-reply-to
Content
In 2.5
>>> import array
>>> a = array.array('b', 'fox')
>>>

In 3.0
>>> import array
>>> a = array.array('b', 'fox')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#2>", line 1, in <module>
    a = array.array('b', 'fox')
TypeError: an integer is required

This puzzled me because an integer argument most certainly is not
allowed (one would raise other exceptions.)  Then I realized that 'an
integer' here actually means 'an iterator producing integers' or more
exactly, 'an iterable whose iterator yields integers in the range
implied by the type code'.  What I would like to see is something like

TypeError: for typecode 'b', the optional initializer must be an
iterable of 1 byte integers (such as bytes).

I would also like to see a minor change in the array and array.array
docstrings.  Array.__doc__ lists the typecodes, array.array.__doc__
lists all the other info needed, so that help(array) gives everything
while help(array.array) omits the needed typecode info.  So I would like
to see the typecode info moved to the class docstring with everything
else (and replaced by 'Defines one class: array') so help(array) and
help(array.array) would both give all needed info.
History
Date User Action Args
2008-08-27 01:51:36terry.reedysetrecipients: + terry.reedy
2008-08-27 01:51:36terry.reedysetmessageid: <1219801896.33.0.491668230509.issue3693@psf.upfronthosting.co.za>
2008-08-27 01:51:34terry.reedylinkissue3693 messages
2008-08-27 01:51:33terry.reedycreate