Constructor signatures missing in types module documentation

[techtonik]

BPO	11776
Nosy	@birkenfeld, @terryjreedy, @ncoghlan, @ezio-melotti, @merwok, @ericsnowcurrently, @eamanu, @csabella, @tza0987
Files	issue11776-sigs-docs-first.diff issue11776-first-easy-part-lambda-.diff signatures-full-patch.diff complete-patch-with-table-issue-11776.diff

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

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2011-04-05.20:53:24.787>
labels = ['easy', '3.8', 'type-feature', '3.7', 'docs']
title = 'Constructor signatures missing in types module documentation'
updated_at = <Date 2019-02-24.23:42:44.704>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/techtonik'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2019-02-24.23:42:44.704>
actor = 'terry.reedy'
assignee = 'docs@python'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Documentation']
creation = <Date 2011-04-05.20:53:24.787>
creator = 'techtonik'
dependencies = []
files = ['26969', '26982', '27003', '27047']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 11776
keywords = ['patch', 'easy']
message_count = 22.0
messages = ['133089', '133352', '133354', '133365', '133366', '133374', '133376', '166149', '166152', '168864', '168866', '168901', '168933', '168947', '168992', '169156', '169158', '169159', '169397', '336475', '336478', '336491']
nosy_count = 12.0
nosy_names = ['georg.brandl', 'terry.reedy', 'ncoghlan', 'ezio.melotti', 'eric.araujo', 'docs@python', 'guandalino', 'eric.snow', 'mikehoy', 'eamanu', 'cheryl.sabella', 'Tza0987']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'needs patch'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue11776'
versions = ['Python 3.7', 'Python 3.8']

[techtonik]

types.MethodType(function, instance) is used as a replacement for new.instancemethod(function, instance, class), but this usage is not documented.

[terryjreedy]

All the types in the types module are, being types, potentially callable to produce instances of that type. But they are in types rather than builtins precisely because it is not expected that they be called directly. They are bound to names in types primarily for isinstance checks, and possibly issubclass checks. So none of their signatures are documented in types. It would be an anomaly to add something special for MethodType. So my first impulse is to close this. Do you have a source for your statement?

[techtonik]

Message is classified as spam. I am not sure if you see it.

[terryjreedy]

Messages that only consist of links are classified that way. To refer to other issues, use #xxxxx, as with bpo-6040, but I have no idea which of the many messages you were referring to, so use msgxxxxxx.

The stack overflow link
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/972/adding-a-method-to-an-existing-object
which should be allowed given surrounding text, answers my question:
types.MethodType can be used as a replacement for 2.x new.instancemethod.

The question is where that should be mentioned. The types doc still seems like the wrong place. Perhaps somewhere in the language ref section on classes, if that is where bound methods are discussed.

[terryjreedy]

For anyone curious, I removed the falsely classified as spam message after copying the links into my previous message.

[techtonik]

Nevermind about bpo-6040 - I just used the same technique to provide a workaround and then remembered I've seen this recipe on StackOverflow.

To me types is the right place, because that's exactly where are you sent from the docs of new module:

Deprecated since version 2.6: The new module has been removed in Python 3.0. Use the types module’s classes instead.

http://docs.python.org/library/new.html

[birkenfeld]

When we do document types, their constructors and methods should also be documented. This is a valid request.

[techtonik]

Still not documented..

[techtonik]

Another 4 complains about missing references: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1015307/python-bind-an-unbound-method