On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 11:53 AM, Marvin Humphrey <mar...@rectangular.com> wrote: > With regards to "what actually happens to the reference count", I would argue > that "incremented" and "decremented" are accurate descriptions. > > * When a function returns an "incremented" object, that function has added > a refcount to it.
Except that's not quite true in cases like PySet_Pop(). In that case, the net effect on the refcount is neutral. The significant point is that the set no longer holds a reference, it has passed that responsibility back to the caller. > In my view, it is not desirable to label arguments or return values as > "borrowed"; it is only necessary to advise the user when they must take action > to account for a refcount, gained or lost. Agreed on this part, though. Callers need to know when: 1. The return value is a new reference that must be decremented (currently indicated in the docs by "Return value: New reference") 2. An input parameter transfers responsibility for the reference to the callee (the only example I noticed in the docs is PyList_SetItem, which uses an explicit note rather than any kind of markup or the refcount data) I believe the current refcount data covers the first case reasonably well, but not the latter (and still has the problem of being separated from the documentation of the functions themselves). Cheers, Nick. -- Nick Coghlan | ncogh...@gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
