diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | Doc/ref/ref3.tex | 17 |
1 files changed, 10 insertions, 7 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/ref/ref3.tex b/Doc/ref/ref3.tex index 3a70fc1..f932683 100644 --- a/Doc/ref/ref3.tex +++ b/Doc/ref/ref3.tex @@ -910,12 +910,15 @@ imported modules are still available at the time when the \begin{methoddesc}[object]{__repr__}{self} Called by the \function{repr()}\bifuncindex{repr} built-in function and by string conversions (reverse quotes) to compute the ``official'' -string representation of an object. This should normally look like a -valid Python expression that can be used to recreate an object with -the same value. By convention, objects which cannot be trivially -converted to strings which can be used to create a similar object -produce a string of the form \samp{<\var{...some useful -description...}>}. +string representation of an object. It at all possible, this should +look like a valid Python expression that could be used to recreate an +object with the same value (given an appropriate environment). If +this is not possible, a string of the form \samp{<\var{...some useful +description...}>} should be returned. The return value must be a +string object. + +This is typically used for debugging, so it is important that the +representation is information-rich and unambiguous. \indexii{string}{conversion} \indexii{reverse}{quotes} \indexii{backward}{quotes} @@ -928,7 +931,7 @@ by the \keyword{print}\stindex{print} statement to compute the ``informal'' string representation of an object. This differs from \method{__repr__()} in that it does not have to be a valid Python expression: a more convenient or concise representation may be used -instead. +instead. The return value must be a string object. \end{methoddesc} \begin{methoddesc}[object]{__cmp__}{self, other} |