Pydoc: better support of method aliases

[serhiy-storchaka]

BPO	34966
Nosy	@terryjreedy, @serhiy-storchaka, @1st1, @miss-islington
PRs	bpo-34966: Improve support of method aliases in pydoc. #9823 [3.7] bpo-34966: Improve support of method aliases in pydoc. (GH-9823) #10407 [3.6] bpo-34966: Improve support of method aliases in pydoc. (GH-9823) #10408

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

Show more details

GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/serhiy-storchaka'
closed_at = <Date 2018-11-08.07:24:13.687>
created_at = <Date 2018-10-12.15:50:11.626>
labels = ['3.7', '3.8', 'type-bug', 'library']
title = 'Pydoc: better support of method aliases'
updated_at = <Date 2018-11-08.07:24:13.686>
user = 'https://github.com/serhiy-storchaka'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2018-11-08.07:24:13.686>
actor = 'serhiy.storchaka'
assignee = 'serhiy.storchaka'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2018-11-08.07:24:13.687>
closer = 'serhiy.storchaka'
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2018-10-12.15:50:11.626>
creator = 'serhiy.storchaka'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 34966
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 6.0
messages = ['327593', '327608', '327609', '329456', '329458', '329459']
nosy_count = 4.0
nosy_names = ['terry.reedy', 'serhiy.storchaka', 'yselivanov', 'miss-islington']
pr_nums = ['9823', '10407', '10408']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue34966'
versions = ['Python 3.6', 'Python 3.7', 'Python 3.8']

[serhiy-storchaka]

Pydoc supports aliases. If the alias is defined in the same class

    class A:
        def foo(self, x=42): pass
        bar = foo

it will render the docstring only for the original function. For the alias it will output just "bar = foo(self, x=42)".

But this doesn't work if the original function or alias are inherited. It often happened in the tkinter and turtle modules which have a hierarchy of classes, and aliases defined in parent classes. Compare for example the rendering for methods itemconfig and lift in help(tkinter.Listbox).

The proposed PR makes pydoc detecting aliases for inherited methods.

[terryjreedy]

What do you mean by 'does not work'.

Alias of function in same namespace.

| itemconfig = itemconfigure(self, index, cnf=None, **kw)
|
| itemconfigure(self, index, cnf=None, **kw)
| Configure resources of an ITEM.

Alias of function in inherited namespace.

| lift = tkraise(self, aboveThis=None)
| Raise this widget in the stacking order.

This is also marked as an alias. The difference is the inclusions of the docstring of the original. I think it should be, since it would not otherwise be present in the help output.

[serhiy-storchaka]

The original function is present too.

| tkraise(self, aboveThis=None)
| Raise this widget in the stacking order.

[serhiy-storchaka]

New changeset a44d34e by Serhiy Storchaka in branch 'master':
bpo-34966: Improve support of method aliases in pydoc. (GH-9823)
a44d34e

[miss-islington]

New changeset 9d36581 by Miss Islington (bot) in branch '3.7':
bpo-34966: Improve support of method aliases in pydoc. (GH-9823)
9d36581

[miss-islington]

New changeset 11a33e1 by Miss Islington (bot) in branch '3.6':
bpo-34966: Improve support of method aliases in pydoc. (GH-9823)
11a33e1