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I'm happy to resolve it before checking in the patch.
A small delta like that doesn't need a full-on review.
If people said "eww" then I'll back it out. Nobody said "eww"
to the "PyModuleDef *module" change (see below), and I'm not
here to pick a fight.
But let's talk about it a little!
--
First, the name *is* visible in Python, if you examine the unbound
version.
 >>> str(inspect.signature(_datetime.datetime.__dict__['now']))
 `(<type>, tz=None)`
 >>> help(_datetime.datetime.__dict__['now'])
 # ... shows help, including <type> parameter in the signature
The angle-brackets are Signature's way of denoting a positional-only
parameter, which it is. That parameter isn't addressable by name.
(The ugly angle brackets are being addressed in another issue.)
--
Second, I'm surprised at the behavior of help. I hadn't realized
that it showed you bound parameters for callables you passed in.
 >>> class C:
 ... @classmethod
 ... def wife(cls, a, b):
 ... print(cls, a, b)
 ... 
 >>> help(C.wife)
That shows "cls" as part of the signature. But inspect.signature
does not:
 >>> str(inspect.signature(C.wife))
 '(a, b)'
FWIW help on a callable bound using functools.partial shows you
help on the functools.partial class, so no guidance there.
(help() only goes one level deep on this by the way. If you have
a types.MethodType which binds another types.MethodType, help
only peeks in the first one. But now I'm just showing off.)
Anyway, I think it's odd, but I'm not here to change the behavior
of help. I'll work on fixing help so it shows the already-bound
parameters.
--
Third, it's inconvenient to use "type" as an identifier in Python code,
because "type" is a Python builtin. And it's impossible to use "class"
because it's a keyword. So people use "cls" or "klass" according to
personal taste.
We don't have these restrictions in C. So actually "class" would
work--except C++ uses "class" as a keyword. Let's not go there.
But "type" works fine.
--
Fourth, I already called the first parameter "type" for __new__
calls, as that seemed to be the convention there. It was just
class methods where I called it "cls". But... __new__ *is* a
class method. This is an artificial distinction.
At the very least, I want Argument Clinic to use one name
consistently. If everyone would prefer "cls" I don't care all
that much. But I think "type" is a better name. (For one,
it's not misspelled.)
--
Fifth, up until Argument Clinic, most callables had "PyObject *self"
as their first parameter. But module-level callables never actually
get a "self", there's no "self" to call them with. They actually
take the module object. Everybody called the first parameter
"self" because they copied-and-pasted it from other code, and everyone
ignores that parameter anyway.
I proposed generating "PyModuleDef *module" there instead, Guido said
"good idea!" I see this as similar, though the degree of error is
not as large.