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.
5 files changed