Mac wrote: [snip] > I guess the problem is I'm thinking of "classes" > as these abstract concepts, sort of like Platonian "forms", whereas I > should be thinking of classes as "class objects", object instances, > each coming from some module's namespace... is this sort of the idea? > Someone help me wrap my head around this, please. :) >
Yes, you're getting it; Python is a dynamic language. Even classes can be created on the fly. I have a kit for reading/writing boring old legacy mainframe-style files containg multiple record types with fixed-length fields. The record definitions are stored as data, not as code. A skeleton class's source is actually *local* to the class-making function. This means the class statement is executed each time the function is called. The function takes the current class instance like a shopping trolley and fills it up with more methods and attributes, before parking it in a dictionary keyed on the record name. Taxpayer = file_dict['TXPYR'] taxpayer = Taxpayer() taxpayer.name = 'John Q Doe' taxpayer.date_of_birth = datetime.date(1970, 12, 31) taxpayer.reportable_income = 1234.56 outfile.write(taxpayer.as_fixed_string()) Cheers, John -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
