Andrew MacKeith a écrit :
I create a class like this in Python-2.6

 >>> class Y(str):
...   def __init__(self, s):
...      pass
...
 >>> y = Y('giraffe')
 >>> y
'giraffe'
 >>>

How does the base class (str) get initialized with the value passed to Y.__init__() ?

It happens in the __new__ method (which is the proper "constructor")

class Y(str):
    def __new__(cls, value, foo="foo"):
        instance = str.__new__(cls, value)
        instance.foo = foo
        return instance

    def __repr__(self):
        return "<%s(%s, %s)>" % (type(self).__name__, self, self.foo)


Is this behavior specific to the str type,  or do base classes not need
to be explicitly initialized?

When you override a method in a derived class, it's your responsability to call on the parent(s) class(es) implementation. __init__ is not an exception to that rule. The point is that since __init__ works by mutating the newly created instance, it makes no sense to have a distinct __init__ for immutable types - which have their "value" set once for all at creation time.
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