Tangram for Python?

[Jean-Louis Leroy]

> > 1) direct attribute access, like in Perl or Smalltalk (#instVarAt:)
> >    [for orthogonality]
> 
> Do you mean simply the ability to refer to obj.attr, instead of going
> through a get_attr() accessor function?  If that's correct, then yes,
> Python has that.

Yes.

> > 2) interception of attribute access, à la Perl's tie()
> >    [for orthogonal relationships-on-demand]
> 
> Yes; you can define a __getattr__(self, attrname) method for a class,
> See http://www.python.org/doc/ref/attribute-access.html for the
> semantics.

Can that be done from outside the class? For example, is it possible
for a module like Tangram to add these attribute methods on the fly?

> > 5) operator overloading
> >    [for a 'natural' way of building where-clauses]
> 
> Yes; again, you can define magically-named methods such as __add__,
> __sub__, __mul__, etc. to overload various operations.  (Though in all
> honesty, from reading the Tangram docs I thought the use of
> overloading to build where-clauses was a bit opaque and confusing.)

In all honesty, I had a harder time documenting Tangram that actually
building it...well, almost ;-)

Consider the alternative: building where-clauses via function
calls. It's very verbose. Compare TopLINK for Smalltalk and its Java
port.

Python does look like a good platform. But I don't have much time
right now for a free (as in gratis) project of that envergure.

I was wondering, is it imaginable that people or companies from the
Python community would sponsor a Python port? Via cosource.com? For
startes, how many are interested in an object-relational mapper à la
Tangram?
-- 

 V
VLR		Jean-Louis Leroy
 F		http://users.skynet.be/jll