python: replace mutable default arguments (W0102) and enable unused wildcard import check (W0614)

[RhythmP619]

• Fixing Pylint W0102 (dangerous default value) warnings by replacing mutable default arguments such as empty lists with None and safely initializing them inside functions. This prevents shared mutable defaults between calls and aligns with Python best practices.
• Enabling Pylint W0614 (unused wildcard import) checks, which were previously disabled but triggered no errors, to improve static analysis coverage going forward.

Pylint confirms no W0102 warnings remain, and W0614 checks are now active to catch future issues.

[echoix]

For all the other changes, like the ones for topolist, I think it would make sense to edit the docstrings to explain that the default value of xxxx is used when None is given (None isn't really an accepted value).
Especially since the function signature doesn't give a clue anymore on this.

[echoix]

I don't really like the approach used here. I think it shows well how the previous code was abusing the mutability of the default value, and was affected by it (it was replacing the element at index 0 probably because of that).

However, global variables are usually a source of problems, harder to reason correctly about them. Now, is it worse than the dangerous default value, probably not understood?

I don't understand extremely well the pygrass message module, so I'd like some help here

[RhythmP619]

I agree that the global variable approach can introduce complexity, and the previous code’s mutable default was indeed problematic. My intent was to quickly fix the W0102 issue with a straightforward pattern, but I see the benefit of encapsulating this in a class method or decorator for better clarity and maintainability.

I can update the code to use a class method singleton or a decorator pattern if that’s preferred.

[petrasovaa]

I don't have any special insights to it, but I think this is at least more readable than the previous code. The "instance" parameter doesn't seem to be used anywhere, so I think it's fine to get rid of it.

[RhythmP619]

Thank you for the detailed feedback!

Regarding the docstrings, I will add clarifications explicitly stating that when the parameter is None, a default list (e.g., ['EQUAL']) is created internally. This should make the behavior clear despite the function signature no longer showing the mutable default.

[echoix]

Do you have a better idea for how to only solve what we have here, without addressing the 3041 issues in the gui folder?

Appart from not un commenting it...

Does that rule exist in ruff that could be more easily configured there to help with checking most of the cases?

[echoix]

Oh, ruff PLW0102 doesn't exist, because B006 is implemented and does the same job. So try making CI pass by enabling B006 (excluding the gui folder)

[petrasovaa]

Do you have a better idea for how to only solve what we have here, without addressing the 3041 issues in the gui folder?

It seems to be about 30 files, I don't know what the 3041 mean.

[echoix]

Do you have a better idea for how to only solve what we have here, without addressing the 3041 issues in the gui folder?

It seems to be about 30 files, I don't know what the 3041 mean.

Locally, he only ran for the grass package, but we actually have three parts, the grass python api, the tools written in python in the script folder, and the gui.

He solved only in the grass package, but there are lots of remaining issues in the gui folder.

Removing the excluded rule enabled it for everywhere.