Somewhere along the way, the softspace attr of file objects became read-

only.  Repaired, and added new tests to test_file.py.

Lib/test/test_file.py

@@ -5,6 +5,26 @@ from array import array
 from test.test_support import verify, TESTFN, TestFailed
 from UserList import UserList
 
+# verify expected attributes exist
+f = file(TESTFN, 'w')
+softspace = f.softspace
+f.name     # merely shouldn't blow up
+f.mode     # ditto
+f.closed   # ditto
+
+# verify softspace is writable
+f.softspace = softspace    # merely shouldn't blow up
+
+# verify the others aren't
+for attr in 'name', 'mode', 'closed':
+    try:
+        setattr(f, attr, 'oops')
+    except TypeError:
+        pass
+    else:
+        raise TestFailed('expected TypeError setting file attr %r' % attr)
+f.close()
+
 # verify writelines with instance sequence
 l = UserList(['1', '2'])
 f = open(TESTFN, 'wb')

Misc/NEWS

@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ What's New in Python 2.3 beta 2?
 Core and builtins
 -----------------
 
+- The softspace attribute of file objects became read-only by oversight.
+  It's writable again.
+
 Extension modules
 -----------------
 

Objects/fileobject.c

@@ -1962,7 +1962,8 @@ PyTypeObject PyFile_Type = {
 	0,					/* tp_call */
 	0,					/* tp_str */
 	PyObject_GenericGetAttr,		/* tp_getattro */
-	0,					/* tp_setattro */
+	/* softspace is writable:  we must supply tp_setattro */
+	PyObject_GenericSetAttr,		/* tp_setattro */
 	0,					/* tp_as_buffer */
 	Py_TPFLAGS_DEFAULT | Py_TPFLAGS_BASETYPE, /* tp_flags */
 	file_doc,				/* tp_doc */