Thanks, Steven and Steven. @Bethard: Isn't it a bit convoluted to use metaclasses? someinstance.__class__.__name__ does the same thing.
@D'Aprano: Thanks for the advice to rethink my data model. I'm doing so right now, and I've already come up with a way that makes more sense. :) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
