Issue #16382: Improve exception message of warnings.warn() for bad category.

Initial patch by Phil Elson.
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_warnings.py b/Lib/test/test_warnings.py
index cf7f747..cd3288b 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_warnings.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_warnings.py
@@ -370,6 +370,41 @@
         with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
             self.module.warn(BadStrWarning())
 
+    def test_warning_classes(self):
+        class MyWarningClass(Warning):
+            pass
+
+        class NonWarningSubclass:
+            pass
+
+        # passing a non-subclass of Warning should raise a TypeError
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError) as cm:
+            self.module.warn('bad warning category', '')
+        self.assertIn('category must be a Warning subclass, not ',
+                      str(cm.exception))
+
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError) as cm:
+            self.module.warn('bad warning category', NonWarningSubclass)
+        self.assertIn('category must be a Warning subclass, not ',
+                      str(cm.exception))
+
+        # check that warning instances also raise a TypeError
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError) as cm:
+            self.module.warn('bad warning category', MyWarningClass())
+        self.assertIn('category must be a Warning subclass, not ',
+                      str(cm.exception))
+
+        with self.assertWarns(MyWarningClass) as cm:
+            self.module.warn('good warning category', MyWarningClass)
+        self.assertEqual('good warning category', str(cm.warning))
+
+        with self.assertWarns(UserWarning) as cm:
+            self.module.warn('good warning category', None)
+        self.assertEqual('good warning category', str(cm.warning))
+
+        with self.assertWarns(MyWarningClass) as cm:
+            self.module.warn('good warning category', MyWarningClass)
+        self.assertIsInstance(cm.warning, Warning)
 
 class CWarnTests(WarnTests, unittest.TestCase):
     module = c_warnings
diff --git a/Lib/warnings.py b/Lib/warnings.py
index a427e35..f37b8a7 100644
--- a/Lib/warnings.py
+++ b/Lib/warnings.py
@@ -162,7 +162,9 @@
     # Check category argument
     if category is None:
         category = UserWarning
-    assert issubclass(category, Warning)
+    if not (isinstance(category, type) and issubclass(category, Warning)):
+        raise TypeError("category must be a Warning subclass, "
+                        "not '{:s}'".format(type(category).__name__))
     # Get context information
     try:
         caller = sys._getframe(stacklevel)