Typing of ctypes' pointer types is wrong

https://docs.python.org/3/library/ctypes.html#pointers explicitly says:

Calling the pointer type without an argument creates a NULL pointer.

and even has a code example for this:

null_ptr = POINTER(c_int)()

But the pointer constructor

typeshed/stdlib/ctypes/__init__.pyi

Line 167 in 10bc4b0

def __init__(self, arg: _CT) -> None: ...

requires an argument. This should be optional if I understand the code there correctly.

Hum, this was probably my mistake. I changed this in #8074 due to observing this behaviour in the interactive REPL:

>>> from ctypes import pointer
>>> pointer()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: _ctypes.pointer() takes exactly one argument (0 given)

The entire ctypes stub appears to be a lie (pointer() is given as a class, but in reality it's a function). Ideally I think we'd fix that, but that might be a breaking change. Not really sure what the best course of action is tbh.

If there only was a way to judge the impact of a change. 🤔 But seriously, I would just try the changes and see whether primer explodes.

If there only was a way to judge the impact of a change. 🤔 But seriously, I would just try the changes and see whether primer explodes.

I'll get on it.

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Typing of ctypes' pointer types is wrong #8351

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Typing of ctypes' pointer types is wrong #8351

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AlexWaygood commented on Jul 21, 2022

AlexWaygood commented on Jul 21, 2022

srittau commented on Jul 21, 2022

AlexWaygood commented on Jul 21, 2022

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