Clarify argument type of platform.platform(aliased, terse) to boolean

[Rotzbua]

BPO	46882
Nosy	@stevendaprano, @Rotzbua
PRs	bpo-46882: Clarify argument type of platform.platform(aliased, terse) to boolean #31617 gh-91038: Change default argument value to False instead of 0 #31621

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2022-02-28.14:28:31.784>
labels = ['3.7', '3.8', '3.9', 'type-feature', 'docs', '3.10', '3.11', 'library']
title = 'Clarify argument type of platform.platform(aliased, terse) to boolean'
updated_at = <Date 2022-02-28.18:49:58.262>
user = 'https://github.com/Rotzbua'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2022-02-28.18:49:58.262>
actor = 'Rotzbua'
assignee = 'docs@python'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Documentation', 'Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2022-02-28.14:28:31.784>
creator = 'Rotzbua'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 46882
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['414198', '414199', '414205', '414213']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['steven.daprano', 'docs@python', 'Rotzbua']
pr_nums = ['31617', '31621']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = None
stage = 'patch review'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue46882'
versions = ['Python 3.7', 'Python 3.8', 'Python 3.9', 'Python 3.10', 'Python 3.11']

[Rotzbua]

Problem:
Both arguments aliased and terse should be boolean instead of integer.

Description:
The function is as platform.platform(aliased=0, terse=0) so both arguments aliased and terse seems to be numbers.
The documentation says: "If aliased is true,[..]" which gives a hint that the type should be boolean instead of an integer.
Looking into the implementation both arguments used as boolean.

Solution:
Update documentation and set default argument values to False instead of 0.

Reference:
Current documentation: https://docs.python.org/3.11/library/platform.html#platform.platform

[stevendaprano]

Both arguments aliased and terse should be boolean instead of integer.

Why should they be strictly True/False booleans? I disagree strongly that they should be. Any object that duck-types as a true or false value is sufficient.

Treated as a documentation change, your PR is wrong because it implies that only the singletons True and False are acceptable, when in fact any true and false (note the lowercase) values are acceptable.

Personally, I prefer the terms "truthy" and "falsey", or "a true value" and "a false value" over a bare true/false, but some people do not, and it is a long-standing tradition in Python circles to understand lowercase true/false as the duck-typed values as opposed to the True and False bool singletons.

[stevendaprano]

See bpo-46883

[Rotzbua]

Thanks for pointing out the logical change from "true" to "True".
I do not want to start a discussion about principles.

Nevertheless I think a change from platform(aliased=0, terse=0) to platform(aliased=False, terse=False) makes the how-to-use more intuitive.

The change does not change any function behavior or breaks any backwards compatibilities.

I created a new PR without the change of "true".