super() raises "TypeError: must be type, not classobj" for new-style class

Alright, it's the usual "super() cannot be used with an old-style class".

However, the important point is that the correct test for "is this a new-style instance (i.e. object)?" is

>>> class OldStyle: pass
>>> instance = OldStyle()
>>> issubclass(instance.__class__, object)
False

and not (as in the question):

>>> isinstance(instance, object)
True

For classes, the correct "is this a new-style class" test is:

>>> issubclass(OldStyle, object)  # OldStyle is not a new-style class
False
>>> issubclass(int, object)  # int is a new-style class
True

The crucial point is that with old-style classes, the class of an instance and its type are distinct. Here, OldStyle().__class__ is OldStyle, which does not inherit from object, while type(OldStyle()) is the instance type, which does inherit from object. Basically, an old-style class just creates objects of type instance (whereas a new-style class creates objects whose type is the class itself). This is probably why the instance OldStyle() is an object: its type() inherits from object (the fact that its class does not inherit from object does not count: old-style classes merely construct new objects of type instance). Partial reference: https://stackoverflow.com/a/9699961/42973.

PS: The difference between a new-style class and an old-style one can also be seen with:

>>> type(OldStyle)  # OldStyle creates objects but is not itself a type
classobj
>>> isinstance(OldStyle, type)
False
>>> type(int)  # A new-style class is a type
type

(old-style classes are not types, so they cannot be the type of their instances).

super() can be used only in the new-style classes, which means the root class needs to inherit from the 'object' class.

For example, the top class need to be like this:

class SomeClass(object):
    def __init__(self):
        ....

not

class SomeClass():
    def __init__(self):
        ....

So, the solution is that call the parent's init method directly, like this way:

class TextParser(HTMLParser):
    def __init__(self):
        HTMLParser.__init__(self)
        self.all_data = []

You can also use class TextParser(HTMLParser, object):. This makes TextParser a new-style class, and super() can be used.

If you look at the inheritance tree (in version 2.6), HTMLParser inherits from SGMLParser which inherits from ParserBase which doesn't inherits from object. I.e. HTMLParser is an old-style class.

About your checking with isinstance, I did a quick test in ipython:

In [1]: class A:
   ...:     pass
   ...: 

In [2]: isinstance(A, object)
Out[2]: True

Even if a class is old-style class, it's still an instance of object.