of literaldir(str=dir(''true dir(list=dir([]true same resulttype name or literal this works because names like str and list that were once type converter functions are actually names of types in python todaycalling one of these invokes its constructor to generate an instance of that type part vi will have more to say about constructors and operator overloading methods when we discuss classes the dir function serves as sort of memory-jogger--it provides list of attribute namesbut it does not tell you anything about what those names mean for such extra informationwe need to move on to the next documentation source some ides for python workincluding idlehave features that list attributes on objects automatically within their guisand can be viewed as alternatives to dir idlefor examplewill list an object' attributes in pop-up selection window when you type period after the object' name and pause or press tab this is mostly meant as an autocomplete featurethoughnot an information source has more on idle docstrings__doc__ besides commentspython supports documentation that is automatically attached to objects and retained at runtime for inspection syntacticallysuch comments are coded as strings at the tops of module files and function and class statementsbefore any other executable code (commentsincluding unix-stye #lines are ok before thempython automatically stuffs the text of these stringsknown informally as docstringsinto the __doc__ attributes of the corresponding objects user-defined docstrings for exampleconsider the following filedocstrings py its docstrings appear at the beginning of the file and at the start of function and class within it herei've used triple-quoted block strings for multiline comments in the file and the functionbut any sort of string will worksingleor double-quoted one-liners like those in the class are finebut don' allow multiple-line text we haven' studied the def or class statements in detail yetso ignore everything about them here except the strings at their tops""module documentation words go here "" the documentation interlude