Comment

Peter Bengtsson

It's just a of an oddity in python that 'list' is a type object and not a <type 'function'> like one'd expect it to be.

Parent comment

John P. Speno

In general, isinstance(foo, klass) returns True if foo is an instance of klass or a subclass of it. It can also accept types.* instead of classes. Martelli calls it the lesser of two evils. :-)