Make dir() wordier (see the new docstring). The new behavior is a mixed

bag.  It's clearly wrong for classic classes, at heart because a classic
class doesn't have a __class__ attribute, and I'm unclear on whether
that's feature or bug.  I'll repair this once I find out (in the
meantime, dir() applied to classic classes won't find the base classes,
while dir() applied to a classic-class instance *will* find the base
classes but not *their* base classes).

Please give the new dir() a try and see whether you love it or hate it.
The new dir([]) behavior is something I could come to love.  Here's
something to hate:

>>> class C:
...     pass
...
>>> c = C()
>>> dir(c)
['__doc__', '__module__']
>>>

The idea that an instance has a __doc__ attribute is jarring (of course
it's really c.__class__.__doc__ == C.__doc__; likewise for __module__).

OTOH, the code already has too many special cases, and dir(x) doesn't
have a compelling or clear purpose when x isn't a module.

1 files changed, 5 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/Lib/test/test_descrtut.py b/Lib/test/test_descrtut.py
index edb0388..121eed5 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_descrtut.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_descrtut.py
@@ -97,14 +97,15 @@ just like classic classes:
     >>> a.default = -1000
     >>> print a["noway"]
     -1000
-    >>> print dir(a)
-    ['default']
+    >>> 'default' in dir(a)
+    1
     >>> a.x1 = 100
     >>> a.x2 = 200
     >>> print a.x1
     100
-    >>> print dir(a)
-    ['default', 'x1', 'x2']
+    >>> d = dir(a)
+    >>> 'default' in d and 'x1' in d and 'x2' in d
+    1
     >>> print a.__dict__
     {'default': -1000, 'x2': 200, 'x1': 100}
     >>>