[siebenmann]

The 'class' versus 'type' distinction here is actually arbitrary. The same C level code is responsible for the message that you get from 'type(whatever)' in both Python 2 and Python 3, but in Python 2 it drew a distinction between heap-allocated things (which were reported as 'class') and things that were not heap allocated (which were reported as 'type'). Non heap allocated things had to be created in C; heap allocated things were usually implemented in Python and were usually made with 'class X(base): ...'.

(This change was introduced in Python 3.0a5, bug #2565. Looking at the bug, this is a followup of making the type() of new style classes be reported as 'class ...', but preserving old behavior of type() for built-ins, done in 2001.)