[chriswarbo]

> Theoretically, could `set` be a subclass of `frozenset` (and `dict` of `frozendict`)?

At one extreme: sure, anything can be made a subclass of anything else, if we wanted to.

At the other extreme: no, since Liskov substitution is an impossibly-high bar to reach; especially in a language that's as dynamic/loose as Python. For example, consider an expression like '"pop" in dir(mySet)'

[tremon]

> consider an expression like '"pop" in dir(mySet)'

  class frozenset:
    pass
  
  class set(frozenset):
    def pop(self, key):
      pass

I don't see why hasattr(mySet, 'pop') should be a problem here?

[chriswarbo]

> I don't see why hasattr(mySet, 'pop') should be a problem here?

I never said it's a problem (and I never said it's not!). I was specifically addressing two things:

- The "theoretical" nature of the question I quoted (i.e. ignoring other aspects like subjectivity, practicality, convention, etc.)

- The reasoning about "Liskov violation", which was quoted further up this thread.

For context, here's Liskov's definition of their principle (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liskov_substitution_principle ):

> Barbara Liskov and Jeannette Wing described the principle succinctly in a 1994 paper as follows:[1]

> > Subtype Requirement: Let ϕ(x) be a property provable about objects x of type T. Then ϕ(y) should be true for objects y of type S where S is a subtype of T.

My expression `"pop" in dir(mySet)` gives an explicit example of how `set` and `frozenset` are not subtypes of each other (regardless of how they're encoded in the language, with "subclasses" or whatever). In this case `ϕ(x)` would be a property like `'"pop" in dir(x)' = 'False'`, which holds for objects x of type frozenset. Yet it does not hold for objects y of type set.

Your example of `hasattr(mySet, 'pop')` gives another property that would be violated.

My point is that avoiding "Liskov violations" is ("theoretically") impossible, especially in Python (which allows programs to introspect/reflect on values, using facilities like 'dir', 'hasattr', etc.).

(FYI I became rather jaded on the Liskov substitution principle after reading https://okmij.org/ftp/Computation/Subtyping )

[kccqzy]

> I became rather jaded on the Liskov substitution principle after reading https://okmij.org/ftp/Computation/Subtyping

The root of the issue here is that Liskov substitution principle simply references ϕ(x) to be some property satisfied by objects of a class. It does not distinguish between properties that are designed by the author of the class to be satisfied or properties that happen to be satisfied in this particular implementation. But the Hyrum’s Law also states that properties that are accidentally true can become relied upon and as time passes become an intrinsic property. This to me suggests that the crux of the problem is that people don’t communicate sufficiently about invariants and non-invariants of their code.

[tremon]

> > Subtype Requirement: Let ϕ(x) be a property provable about objects x of type T. Then ϕ(y) should be true for objects y of type S where S is a subtype of T.

This says "if hasattr(parent, 'pop') == True then hasattr(child, 'pop') must be True". This is not violated in this case, since hasattr(parent, 'pop') is False. If you want to extend the above definition so that negative proofs concerning the parent should also hold true for the child, then subtyping becomes impossible since all parent and child types must be identical, by definition.

[minitech]

The property in question is `hasattr(x, "pop") is False`.

> If you want to extend the above definition so that negative proofs concerning the parent should also hold true for the child, then subtyping becomes impossible since all parent and child types must be identical, by definition.

The distinction isn’t “negative proofs”, but yes, that’s their point. In Python, you have to draw a line as to which observable properties are eligible.