Is it a good idea to use super() in Python?

Question

Or should I just explicitly reference the superclasses whose methods I want to call?

It seems brittle to repeat the names of super classes when referencing their constructors, but this page http://fuhm.net/super-harmful/ makes some good arguments against using super().

Answer 1

I like super() more because it allows you to change the inherited class (for example when you're refactoring and add an intermediate class) without changing it on all the methods.

Answer 2

super() tries to solve for you the problem of multiple inheritance; it's hard to replicate its semantics and you certainly shouldn't create any new semantics unless you're completely sure.

For single inheritance, there's really no difference between

class X(Y):
    def func(self):
        Y.func(self)

and

class X(Y):
    def func(self):
        super().func()

so I guess that's just the question of taste.