Inheriting methods' docstrings in Python

Question

I have an OO hierarchy with docstrings that take as much maintenance as the code itself. E.g.,

class Swallow(object):
    def airspeed(self):
        \"\"\"R         


        

Answer 1

def fix_docs(cls):
    """ copies docstrings of derived attributes (methods, properties, attrs) from parent classes."""
    public_undocumented_members = {name: func for name, func in vars(cls).items()
                                   if not name.startswith('_') and not func.__doc__}

    for name, func in public_undocumented_members.iteritems():
        for parent in cls.mro()[1:]:
            parfunc = getattr(parent, name, None)
            if parfunc and getattr(parfunc, '__doc__', None):
                if isinstance(func, property):
                    # copy property, since its doc attribute is read-only
                    new_prop = property(fget=func.fget, fset=func.fset,
                                        fdel=func.fdel, doc=parfunc.__doc__)
                    cls.func = new_prop
                else:
                    func.__doc__ = parfunc.__doc__
                break
    return cls