gh-119577: Adjust DeprecationWarning when testing element truth values in ElementTree (GH-119762)

Adjust DeprecationWarning when testing element truth values in ElementTree, we're planning to go with the more natural True return rather than a disruptive harder to code around exception raise, and are deferring the behavior change for a few more releases.

3 files changed, 14 insertions, 10 deletions

diff --git a/Doc/library/xml.etree.elementtree.rst b/Doc/library/xml.etree.elementtree.rst
index a6a9eb8..e591902 100644
--- a/Doc/library/xml.etree.elementtree.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/xml.etree.elementtree.rst
@@ -1058,9 +1058,10 @@ Element Objects
    :meth:`~object.__getitem__`, :meth:`~object.__setitem__`,
    :meth:`~object.__len__`.
 
-   Caution: Elements with no subelements will test as ``False``.  Testing the
-   truth value of an Element is deprecated and will raise an exception in
-   Python 3.14.  Use specific ``len(elem)`` or ``elem is None`` test instead.::
+   Caution: Elements with no subelements will test as ``False``.  In a future
+   release of Python, all elements will test as ``True`` regardless of whether
+   subelements exist.  Instead, prefer explicit ``len(elem)`` or
+   ``elem is not None`` tests.::
 
      element = root.find('foo')
 
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.12.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.12.rst
index f99489f..28b28e9 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.12.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.12.rst
@@ -1440,8 +1440,6 @@ and will be removed in Python 3.14.
 
 * :mod:`typing`: :class:`!typing.ByteString`
 
-* :mod:`xml.etree.ElementTree`: Testing the truth value of an :class:`xml.etree.ElementTree.Element`.
-
 * The ``__package__`` and ``__cached__`` attributes on module objects.
 
 * The :attr:`~codeobject.co_lnotab` attribute of code objects.
@@ -1467,6 +1465,11 @@ although there is currently no date scheduled for their removal.
 
 * :class:`typing.Text` (:gh:`92332`)
 
+* :mod:`xml.etree.ElementTree`: Testing the truth value of an
+  :class:`xml.etree.ElementTree.Element` is deprecated. In a future release it
+  will always return True. Prefer explicit ``len(elem)`` or
+  ``elem is not None`` tests instead.
+
 * Currently Python accepts numeric literals immediately followed by keywords,
   for example ``0in x``, ``1or x``, ``0if 1else 2``.  It allows confusing
   and ambiguous expressions like ``[0x1for x in y]`` (which can be
diff --git a/Doc/whatsnew/3.13.rst b/Doc/whatsnew/3.13.rst
index a1d2a0d..81daaab 100644
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.13.rst
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.13.rst
@@ -1728,11 +1728,6 @@ Pending Removal in Python 3.14
   public API.
   (Contributed by Gregory P. Smith in :gh:`88168`.)
 
-* :mod:`xml.etree.ElementTree`: Testing the truth value of an
-  :class:`~xml.etree.ElementTree.Element` is deprecated and will raise an
-  exception in Python 3.14.
-
-
 Pending Removal in Python 3.15
 ------------------------------
 
@@ -1937,6 +1932,11 @@ although there is currently no date scheduled for their removal.
 * :mod:`wsgiref`: ``SimpleHandler.stdout.write()`` should not do partial
   writes.
 
+* :mod:`xml.etree.ElementTree`: Testing the truth value of an
+  :class:`~xml.etree.ElementTree.Element` is deprecated. In a future release it
+  it will always return ``True``. Prefer explicit ``len(elem)`` or
+  ``elem is not None`` tests instead.
+
 * :meth:`zipimport.zipimporter.load_module` is deprecated:
   use :meth:`~zipimport.zipimporter.exec_module` instead.