diff --git a/waflib/Tools/glib2.py b/waflib/Tools/glib2.py
index c17abf8f..5050e1d1 100644
--- a/waflib/Tools/glib2.py
+++ b/waflib/Tools/glib2.py
@@ -244,7 +244,7 @@ def add_settings_enums(self, namespace, filename_list):
 		raise Errors.WafError("Tried to add gsettings enums to %r more than once" % self.name)
 	self.settings_enum_namespace = namespace
 
-	if type(filename_list) != 'list':
+	if not isinstance(filename_list, list):
 		filename_list = [filename_list]
 	self.settings_enum_files = filename_list
 
diff --git a/waflib/Tools/qt5.py b/waflib/Tools/qt5.py
index 130c5aca..c126064b 100644
--- a/waflib/Tools/qt5.py
+++ b/waflib/Tools/qt5.py
@@ -230,6 +230,7 @@ class XMLHandler(ContentHandler):
 	Parses ``.qrc`` files
 	"""
 	def __init__(self):
+		ContentHandler.__init__(self)
 		self.buf = []
 		self.files = []
 	def startElement(self, name, attrs):
@@ -455,7 +456,6 @@ def configure(self):
 		self.fatal('Could not build a simple Qt application')
 
 	# FreeBSD does not add /usr/local/lib and the pkg-config files do not provide it either :-/
-	from waflib import Utils
 	if Utils.unversioned_sys_platform() == 'freebsd':
 		frag = '#include <QApplication>\nint main(int argc, char **argv) { QApplication app(argc, argv); return NULL != (void*) (&app);}\n'
 		try:
diff --git a/waflib/Utils.py b/waflib/Utils.py
index b864f311..fedbd2e1 100644
--- a/waflib/Utils.py
+++ b/waflib/Utils.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ else:
 try:
 	TimeoutExpired = subprocess.TimeoutExpired
 except AttributeError:
-	class TimeoutExpired(object):
+	class TimeoutExpired(Exception):
 		pass
 
 from collections import deque, defaultdict
diff --git a/waflib/processor.py b/waflib/processor.py
index 73fcbf19..2e4d0480 100755
--- a/waflib/processor.py
+++ b/waflib/processor.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ except ImportError:
 try:
 	TimeoutExpired = subprocess.TimeoutExpired
 except AttributeError:
-	class TimeoutExpired(object):
+	class TimeoutExpired(Exception):
 		pass
 
 def run():