From 72b83c86a9c992bc7635dbeaa08bfa95ec033236 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Raymond Hettinger <python@rcn.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 04:33:44 +0000
Subject: SF patch 1094011:  Docs for file() vs open().

---
 Doc/lib/libfuncs.tex | 9 ++++++---
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

(limited to 'Doc/lib/libfuncs.tex')

diff --git a/Doc/lib/libfuncs.tex b/Doc/lib/libfuncs.tex
index 95ca9eb025..6b853f3d02 100644
--- a/Doc/lib/libfuncs.tex
+++ b/Doc/lib/libfuncs.tex
@@ -416,9 +416,12 @@ class C:
     after any I/O has been performed, and there's no reliable way to
     determine whether this is the case.}
 
-  The \function{file()} constructor is new in Python 2.2.  The previous
-  spelling, \function{open()}, is retained for compatibility, and is an
-  alias for \function{file()}.
+  The \function{file()} constructor is new in Python 2.2 and is an
+  alias for \function{open()}.  Both spellings are equivalent.  The
+  intent is for \function{open()} to continue to be preferred for use
+  as a factory function which returns a new \class{file} object.  The
+  spelling, \class{file} is more suited to type testing (for example,
+  writing \samp{isinstance(f, file)}).
 \end{funcdesc}
 
 \begin{funcdesc}{filter}{function, list}
-- 
cgit v1.2.1

