Handle old-style instances more gracefully (display documentation on
the relevant class instead of documentation on <type 'instance'>).
diff --git a/Lib/pydoc.py b/Lib/pydoc.py
index ce97517..94927d0 100755
--- a/Lib/pydoc.py
+++ b/Lib/pydoc.py
@@ -1448,6 +1448,9 @@
text = TextDoc()
html = HTMLDoc()
+class _OldStyleClass: pass
+_OLD_INSTANCE_TYPE = type(_OldStyleClass())
+
def resolve(thing, forceload=0):
"""Given an object or a path to an object, get the object and its name."""
if isinstance(thing, str):
@@ -1468,12 +1471,16 @@
desc += ' in ' + name[:name.rfind('.')]
elif module and module is not object:
desc += ' in module ' + module.__name__
- if not (inspect.ismodule(object) or
- inspect.isclass(object) or
- inspect.isroutine(object) or
- inspect.isgetsetdescriptor(object) or
- inspect.ismemberdescriptor(object) or
- isinstance(object, property)):
+ if type(object) is _OLD_INSTANCE_TYPE:
+ # If the passed object is an instance of an old-style class,
+ # document its available methods instead of its value.
+ object = object.__class__
+ elif not (inspect.ismodule(object) or
+ inspect.isclass(object) or
+ inspect.isroutine(object) or
+ inspect.isgetsetdescriptor(object) or
+ inspect.ismemberdescriptor(object) or
+ isinstance(object, property)):
# If the passed object is a piece of data or an instance,
# document its available methods instead of its value.
object = type(object)