On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 10:01 PM <mus...@posteo.org> wrote: > > On Thu, 12 Dec 2019 11:33:25 +0000 > Rhodri James <rho...@kynesim.co.uk> wrote: > > > On 11/12/2019 21:32, mus...@posteo.org wrote: > > > Plain and simple: When the refcount reaches zero. > > > You are assuming that "when" implies "immediately on the occurence." > > I'm not implying that. It's the dictionary definition of the word > "when." > > > This happens to be the behaviour in CPython, but other > > implementations vary as Chris has explained several times now. > > And he's right. The documentation is unclear. It should be re-worded to > reflect that the point at which the __del__() method is called after > the refcount reaches zero is unspecified.
In Magic: The Gathering, "when" means "after this happens, the next time its controller has priority, and then once the ability has a chance to resolve". In common English, "when" can often mean "at some extremely unspecified time point after" - for instance, "it's garbage night, so when you get home, put the bins out". Nothing in the word "when" mandates any sort of immediacy. Trying to stipulate all of this would make the documentation LESS clear. The Python documentation should not read like a EULA. ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
