This question is related to another question I posted yesterday, although it is much more general in nature.
Because of the thread I mentionned, I have been trying to determine what objects can be copied, pickled, marshaled and what objects cannot.
While doing that, I stumbled on this puzzle:
new_obj = copy.deepcopy(my_obj)
function_that_uses_my_new_obj(new_obj)
throws:
function_that_uses_my_new_obj(new_obj)
RuntimeError: Internal C++ object (Pyside.QtGui.QWidget) already deleted
Now, since my_obj is a C++ object, that error I can understand. And the reason for that particular problem is the main topic of the other thread.
However, when I try:
function_that_uses_my_new_obj(copy.deepcopy(my_obj))
I don't get anything at all. The program runs normally to this line, stops there for a few seconds and the execution is stopped, the code after that line is not run, no exception/error/warning is thrown and the Python prompt is ready to accept any new command.
EDIT
For some reason, using the copy() method instead of deepcopy() like so:
function_that_uses_my_new_obj(copy.copy(my_obj))
results in the same exception being thrown. So there has to be some point at which deepcopy decides to stop or is being stopped and that triggers the end of the execution. What I don't get is why nothing is raised to inform the user...
解决方案
Your assertion that "my_obj is a C++ object" looks pretty obviously false: my_obj is actually a python wrapper around a C++ object. So code such as:
widget = QtGui.QWidget()
my_obj = copy.deepcopy(widget)
will only create a copy of the python wrapper, leaving the underlying C++ object untouched. This explains why attempting to call one of the copied wrapped methods will produce that RuntimeError. The copy of the wrapper never had a corresponding underlying C++ object, and so it behaves as if it has been deleted.
This kind of thing can happen quite easily in "normal" PySide/PyQt code. Sometimes, if you don't take care to keep a reference to an object on the python side, Qt can delete the C++ part, leaving you with an "empty" wrapper. And in such situations, you will see the exact same RuntimeError.