A generic question: idiom for a paramterized base class?

[Jonathan Hogg]

On 1/8/2002 23:38, in article B96F76DB.EF37%jonathan at onegoodidea.com,
"Jonathan Hogg" <jonathan at onegoodidea.com> wrote:

> I fear the solution is much more subtle. Though it's too late at night for
> me to work it out, so I'll leave it as an exercise for some other reader ;-)

Feeling brighter this morning ;-), so here's my solution:

>>> class AbstractNode:
...     def __add__( self, other ):
...         return self.Add( self, other )
...     def __radd__( self, other ):
...         return self.Add( other, self )
... 
>>> class SNode( AbstractNode ):
...     def __init__( self, name ):
...         self.name = name
...     def __repr__( self ):
...         return self.name
... 
>>> class SAdd( SNode ):
...     def __init__( self, left, right ):
...         self.left = left
...         self.right = right
...     def __repr__( self ):
...         return '%s + %s' % (`self.left`, `self.right`)
... 
>>> SNode.Add = SAdd
>>> 
>>> x = SNode('x')
>>> y = SNode('y')
>>> z = SNode('z')
>>> x 
x
>>> x + y
x + y
>>> _ + z
x + y + z
>>> 

The trick is to fill in the operators of the concrete node class after
they've all been subclassed from it.

I tried to think of various tricks via metaclasses, but decided that
simplicity won.

Jonathan