On Thu, 15 Mar 2012 08:26:22 +1100, Ben Finney wrote: > Jon Clements <jon...@googlemail.com> writes: > >> import inspect >> if inspect.ismethod(foo): >> # ... >> >> Will return True if foo is a bound method. > > But under what other conditions will it return True? The name suggests > that *any* method – static method, class method, bound method, unbound > method – will also result in True. > > The documentation says only “instance method”, though. Confusing :-(
Bound and unbound methods are instance methods. To be precise, the "method" in "(un)bound method" stands for instance method, and the difference between the two in Python 2.x is a flag on the method object. (Unbound methods are gone in Python 3.) Class and static methods are not instance methods. I suppose it is conceivable that you could have an unbound class method in theory, but I can't see any way to actually get one in practice. In Python, and probably most languages, a bare, unadorned "method" is implied to be an instance method; "instance method" is (possibly) a retronym to distinguish them from other, newer(?), types of method. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retronym -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
