A few typos, grammar mistakes, and code snippet errors in the docs

[willy-b]

Documentation

(UPDATE: Added multiple suspected errors in code snippets in the documentation and another typo to this initial report in #156233 (comment) as I was OK'd to open a PR but encouraged to expand the scope before sending a fix.)

Hello Python team,

this is just a typo so I know an issue is not required, but I hope you won't mind if I open one in case someone else wants to include it in a larger typo cleanup PR they are already doing (if no one picks it up after some time and I don't find other typos, I can send a PR).

In the latest version of https://docs.python.org/3/howto/mro.html#python-2-3-mro (archived as is at https://web.archive.org/web/20260822145356/https://docs.python.org/3/howto/mro.html#python-2-3-mro )

• In the sentence

  Then repeat the operation until all the class are removed or it is impossible to find good heads.

  it seems "all the class" should be "all the classes".

Thanks so much!

Linked PRs

• gh-156233: Fix grammar in MRO documentation #156320
• gh-156233: Fixing a couple of typos and a few code snippet errors in Python docs #156475

[StanFromIreland]

@willy-b would you like to open a PR?

[willy-b]

Here is another typo and what appear to be a few minor mistakes in some of the code snippet examples in the 3.16 version of the Python documentation (I confirmed the latest code does not have these fixed yet).

---

On https://docs.python.org/3.16/howto/logging-cookbook.html (archived as is at https://web.archive.org/web/20260827054643/https://docs.python.org/3.16/howto/logging-cookbook.html )

• In the sentence
  

  cpython/Doc/howto/logging-cookbook.rst

  Line 3923 in fe3a26f

  to the log). Nevertheless, the above should be adaptable to your speciric needs. With

  Nevertheless, the above should be adaptable to your speciric needs.

  "speciric" should be "specific".

---

On https://docs.python.org/3.16/library/logging.config.html (archived as is at https://web.archive.org/web/20260827041728/https://docs.python.org/3.16/library/logging.config.html )

• In the example

  You can also specify a special key '.' whose value is a mapping of attribute names to values. If found, the specified attributes will be set on the user-defined object before it is returned. Thus, with the following configuration:

{
'()' : 'my.package.customFormatterFactory',
'bar' : 'baz',
'spam' : 99.9,
'answer' : 42,
'.' {
  'foo': 'bar',
  'baz': 'bozz'
}
}

It seems the key "." is missing a ":" before its value to avoid ':' expected after dictionary key (<string>, line 6)' for the above.

cpython/Doc/library/logging.config.rst

Line 558 in fe3a26f

'.' {

---

On https://docs.python.org/3.16/library/pdb.html#pdbcommand-exceptions (archived as is at https://web.archive.org/web/20260827042203/https://docs.python.org/3.16/library/pdb.html#pdbcommand-exceptions )

• nit: In the example

  def out():
     try:
         middle()
     except Exception as e:
         raise ValueError("reraise middle() error") from e
  
  def middle():
     try:
         return inner(0)
     except Exception as e:
         raise ValueError("Middle fail")
  
  def inner(x):
     1 / x
  
  out()
  

  There is an extra space on the beginning of the last line out(), which prevents the snippet from running exactly as is if copy-pasted.
  

  cpython/Doc/library/pdb.rst

  Line 837 in fe3a26f

  out()

---

On https://docs.python.org/3.16/reference/compound_stmts.html (archived as is at https://web.archive.org/web/20260827044953/https://docs.python.org/3.16/reference/compound_stmts.html )

• In the example

  def overly_generic[
    SimpleTypeVar,
    TypeVarWithDefault = int,
    TypeVarWithBound: int,
    TypeVarWithConstraints: (str, bytes),
    *SimpleTypeVarTuple = (int, float),
    **SimpleParamSpec = (str, bytearray),
  ](
    a: SimpleTypeVar,
    b: TypeVarWithDefault,
    c: TypeVarWithBound,
    d: Callable[SimpleParamSpec, TypeVarWithConstraints],
    *e: SimpleTypeVarTuple,
  ): ...
  

  (noting one must add pass to the end of the above instead of ... before attempting to execute it, but I quoted it as it is)

  it seems the arguments are possibly in a disallowed order, as I observe the error
  non-default type parameter 'TypeVarWithBound' follows default type parameter,
  

  cpython/Doc/reference/compound_stmts.rst

  Line 1852 in fe3a26f

  TypeVarWithDefault = int,

---

Thanks so much!

[StanFromIreland]

You can open a PR with all of them.

[willy-b]

Note earlier this AM I sent #156475 (which has been partially approved, thanks(!), but is not merged yet) to fix most of the items I reported here.

Note that I did NOT make any updates in that PR to try to fix the non-default type parameter 'TypeVarWithBound' follows default type parameter for the overly_generic example on https://docs.python.org/3.16/reference/compound_stmts.html yet ( caused by

cpython/Doc/reference/compound_stmts.rst

Line 1852 in fe3a26f

TypeVarWithDefault = int,

) which I discovered and reported as part of my last comment in this issue (not from me, already present, but not fixing it yet either) because while a simple reordering of the type parameters fixes that to be runnable again in Python there may be other updates required for that example to work properly with type checkers like mypy.