Python libtcod: Object description feature error

Question

I'm working my way through the libtcod python tutorial, I've decided to mess around with some of the code to make it more unique today, and decided to start off with a feature to allow the player to hover the mouse over an object and press 'd' for a description of that object.

I'm currently running into an attribute error: 'str' object has no attribute 'describe' line 657. I've tried many different things but notihng seems to work, unfortunately my level of understanding is pretty limited right now so I can't figure out what's going wrong.

Here are the relevant classes and functions:

class Object:
    #this is a generic object: the player, a monster, an item, the stairs...
    #it's always represented by a character on screen.
    def __init__(self, x, y, char, name, color, blocks=False, fighter=None, ai=None, item=None, description=None):
        self.x = x
        self.y = y
        self.char = char
        self.name = name
        self.color = color
        self.blocks = blocks
        self.fighter = fighter
        if self.fighter: #let the fighter component know who owns it
            self.fighter.owner = self
        self.ai = ai
        if self.ai: #let the ai component know who owns it
            self.ai.owner = self
        self.item = item
        if self.item: #let the item component know who owns it, like a bitch
            self.item.owner = self
        self.description = self
        if self.description: #let the description component know who owns it
            self.description.owner = self

    def describe(self):
        #describe this object
        message(self.description, libtcod.white)

def handle_keys():
    global keys;

            if key_char == 'd':
                #show the description menu, if an item is selected, describe it.
                chosen_object = description_menu('Press the key next to an object to see its description.\n')
                if chosen_object is not None:
                    chosen_object.describe()

            return 'didnt-take-turn'

def description_menu(header):

    global mouse

    #return a string with the names of all objects under the mouse
    (x, y) = (mouse.cx, mouse.cy)

    #create a list with the names of all objects at the mouse's coordinates and in FOV
    names = [obj.name for obj in objects if obj.x == x and obj.y == y and libtcod.map_is_in_fov(fov_map, obj.x, obj.y)]

    names = ', '.join(names) #join the names, seperated by commas
    return names.capitalize()

    #show a menu with each object under the mouse as an option
    if len(names) == 0:
        options = ['There is nothing here.']
    else:
        options = [item.name for item in names]

    index = menu(header, options, INVENTORY_WIDTH)

    #if an item was chosen, return it
    if index is None or len(names) == 0: return None
    return names[index].description

Any help would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

The function description_menu() has the following return

names[index].description

This is a string member that belongs to Object.
When you say

chosen_object.describe()

You are calling the describe() method, but that belongs to the Object class, not a string (hence the attribute error: 'str' object has no attribute 'describe'). You would have to have description_menu() return the Object instead of just the name of it.