[Xapian-tickets] [Xapian] #297: Python bindings `xapian.cvar` raises strange NameError in unexpected circumstances

[Xapian]

#297: Python bindings `xapian.cvar` raises strange NameError in unexpected
circumstances
---------------------+------------------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  exarkun  |       Owner:  olly
     Type:  defect   |      Status:  new 
 Priority:  normal   |   Milestone:      
Component:  Other    |     Version:      
 Severity:  normal   |   Blockedby:      
 Platform:  All      |    Blocking:      
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 This behavior:

 {{{
 Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Jul 31 2008, 17:28:52)
 [GCC 4.2.3 (Ubuntu 4.2.3-2ubuntu7)] on linux2
 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
 >>> import xapian
 >>> issubclass(xapian.cvar, object)
 Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
 NameError: Unknown C global variable
 >>>
 }}}

 is rather undesirable.  This likely stems from the behavior of getting the
 `__class__` attribute of `xapian.cvar`.  It's quite unexpected for
 `issubclass` to raise a `NameError` and automated discovery tools which
 inspect any object they can find in search of things (for example, a test
 discovery tool) don't expect it.  `TypeError` is something that's more
 commonly raised by `issubclass`.  Perhaps that would be a better behavior
 here.  Or still better, if it could just return `False` (or true, if it's
 actually possible to get the right type object to pass as the second
 argument), that would be ideal.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://trac.xapian.org/ticket/297>
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