[issue11073] threading.Thread documentation can be improved

[Antoine Pitrou]

Antoine Pitrou  added the comment:

You don't have to use any staticmethod here (actually, staticmethod is an 
anti-pattern in Python). Just write:

class Foo():
   def __init__(self):
   self.thread = Thread(target=self.runner)
   self.thread.start()

   def runner(self):
  # blah, blah, blah

--
nosy: +pitrou
resolution:  -> works for me
status: open -> closed

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[issue11073] threading.Thread documentation can be improved

[Brian Curtin]

Brian Curtin  added the comment:

> It was not immediately clear from the documentation if my runner() method 
> should be declared static or not.

The doc doesn't mention static methods at all, and my uses and others that I've 
seen have never used static methods.

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nosy: +brian.curtin

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[issue11073] threading.Thread documentation can be improved

[Roy Smith]

Roy Smith  added the comment:

Here's the code I ended up writing:

class Foo():
   def __init__(self):
   self.thread = Thread(target=Foo.runner, args=[self])
   self.thread.start()

   @staticmethod
   def runner(self):
  # blah, blah, blah

It was not immediately clear from the documentation if my runner() method 
should be declared static or not.  In retrospect, it must be (since this can be 
used with target functions which are not class methods at all), but it took a 
bit of thought to get from what the documentation said (i.e. 'callable object 
to be invoked by the run() method') to that conclusion.  

It seems to me the documentation could be a bit more explicit that your target 
does not get called as a method of some object.  Changing the text to read, 
"static function or other callable object" would remove any such confusion.

It could be that some of my confusion is due to my previously working with a 
C++ threading package where the thread runner functions *were* class methods.  
Still, it seems like the potential for other people to be similarly confused 
exists and a little tweaking of the documentation text would help.

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[issue11073] threading.Thread documentation can be improved

[Raymond Hettinger]

Raymond Hettinger  added the comment:

Roy, it's not clear what you're after.  What is it that you think is special 
about the way the target is called?

--
nosy: +rhettinger

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[issue11073] threading.Thread documentation can be improved

[R. David Murray]

R. David Murray  added the comment:

I still don't understand.  I haven't used threading much, but I don't believe 
I've ever used a static method with it.

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[issue11073] threading.Thread documentation can be improved

[Roy Smith]

Roy Smith  added the comment:

What I meant was whether target should be declared as @staticmethod or not.

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[issue11073] threading.Thread documentation can be improved

[R. David Murray]

R. David Murray  added the comment:

I have no idea what "a static context" means, so it wouldn't make it any 
clearer to me.  Can you explain further what your confusion is?

--
nosy: +r.david.murray
type:  -> feature request
versions: +Python 2.7, Python 3.1, Python 3.2 -Python 2.6

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[issue11073] threading.Thread documentation can be improved

[Roy Smith]

New submission from Roy Smith :

The documentation for the threading.Thread constructor says:

"target is the callable object to be invoked by the run() method. Defaults to 
None, meaning nothing is called."

This could be improved by explicitly stating that target is called in a static 
context.  As written, it takes a bit of thought (and experimentation) to be 
sure of that.

--
assignee: docs@python
components: Documentation
messages: 127566
nosy: docs@python, roysmith
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: threading.Thread documentation can be improved
versions: Python 2.6

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