Merge pull request astropy#16732 from eerovaher/no-unit-formatter-ins…

…tances

Stop mentioning unit formatter instances

astropy/io/votable/table.py

@@ -101,12 +101,12 @@ def parse(
         Therefore, *filename* is only required when source is a
         file-like object.
 
-    unit_format : str, astropy.units.format.Base instance or None, optional
+    unit_format : str, astropy.units.format.Base subclass or None, optional
         The unit format to use when parsing unit attributes.  If a
         string, must be the name of a unit formatter. The built-in
         formats include ``generic``, ``fits``, ``cds``, and
         ``vounit``.  A custom formatter may be provided by passing a
-        `~astropy.units.UnitBase` instance.  If `None` (default),
+        `~astropy.units.format.Base` subclass.  If `None` (default),
         the unit format to use will be the one specified by the
         VOTable specification (which is ``cds`` up to version 1.3 of
         VOTable, and ``vounit`` in more recent versions of the spec).

astropy/units/core.py

@@ -749,8 +749,8 @@ def to_string(self, format=unit_format.Generic, **kwargs):
 
         Parameters
         ----------
-        format : `astropy.units.format.Base` instance or str
-            The name of a format or a formatter object.  If not
+        format : `astropy.units.format.Base` subclass or str
+            The name of a format or a formatter class.  If not
             provided, defaults to the generic format.
 
         **kwargs

astropy/units/format/__init__.py

@@ -79,13 +79,12 @@ def get_format(format=None):
 
     Parameters
     ----------
-    format : str or `astropy.units.format.Base` instance or subclass
-        The name of the format, or the format instance or subclass
-        itself.
+    format : str or `astropy.units.format.Base` subclass
+        The name of the format, or the formatter class itself.
 
     Returns
     -------
-    format : `astropy.units.format.Base` instance
+    format : `astropy.units.format.Base` subclass
         The requested formatter.
     """
     if format is None:
@@ -95,8 +94,7 @@ def get_format(format=None):
         return format
     elif not (isinstance(format, str) or format is None):
         raise TypeError(
-            f"Formatter must a subclass or instance of a subclass of {Base!r} "
-            f"or a string giving the name of the formatter. {_known_formats()}."
+            f"Expected a formatter name, not {format!r}.  {_known_formats()}."
         )
 
     format_lower = format.lower()

astropy/units/function/core.py

@@ -393,8 +393,8 @@ def to_string(self, format="generic", **kwargs):
 
         Parameters
         ----------
-        format : `astropy.units.format.Base` instance or str
-            The name of a format or a formatter object.  If not
+        format : `astropy.units.format.Base` subclass or str
+            The name of a format or a formatter class.  If not
             provided, defaults to the generic format.
         """
         supported_formats = (

astropy/units/structured.py

@@ -424,8 +424,8 @@ def to_string(self, format="generic"):
 
         Parameters
         ----------
-        format : `astropy.units.format.Base` instance or str
-            The name of a format or a formatter object.  If not
+        format : `astropy.units.format.Base` subclass or str
+            The name of a format or a formatter class.  If not
             provided, defaults to the generic format.
 
         Notes

astropy/visualization/units.py

@@ -26,8 +26,8 @@ def quantity_support(format="latex_inline"):
 
     Parameters
     ----------
-    format : `astropy.units.format.Base` instance or str
-        The name of a format or a formatter object.  If not
+    format : `astropy.units.format.Base` subclass or str
+        The name of a format or a formatter class.  If not
         provided, defaults to ``latex_inline``.
 
     """