On Fri, 01 Jul 2005 15:02:10 -0500, Rocco Moretti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Joseph Garvin wrote: > >> I'm curious -- what is everyone's favorite trick from a non-python >> language? And -- why isn't it in Python? > >I'm not aware of a language that allows it, but recently I've found >myself wanting the ability to transparently replace objects. For >example, if you have a transparent wrapper class around a certain >object, and then determine that you no longer need to wrap the object, >you can say the magic incantation, and the wrapper instance is replaced >by what it is wrapping everywhere in the program. Or you have a complex >math object, and you realize you can reduce it to a simple integer, you >can substitue the integer for the math object, everywhere. > >I mainly look for it in the "object replaces self" form, but I guess you >could also have it for arbitrary objects, e.g. to wrap a logging object >around a function, even if you don't have access to all references of >that function. > >Why isn't it in Python? It's completely counter to the conventional >object semantics.
Smalltalk supports this with the "become" message. I have also done an implementation of this for Python. Jp -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list