Metaclasses vs. standard Python reflection?

[Michele Simionato]

Ian Bicking <ianb at colorstudy.com> wrote in message news:<mailman.1051866424.27998.python-list at python.org>...
> Indeed, people *do* sometimes do code generation in Python, and it would
> be better to change that to metaclasses.  
+1
> 
> >From what I can tell about aspect-oriented programming (about which I am
> still fuzzy), database and XML wrappers are good candidates for AO
> techniques, and a specific metaclass can implement many of the ideas
> behind AO (though maybe coming from a slightly different angle).  But at
> the moment I only have a vague intuition about what problems are
> appropriate for AO programming, ditto metaclasses.
> 
>   Ian

Some time ago, I read a paper about AOP. Maybe that paper was particularly
bad, but these were my impressions:

1) I couldn't manage to distinguish between the buzzwords and the actual
information;

2) the examples were too abstract and saying nothing to me;

3) the part I understood, I could have implemented trivially with
Python metaclasses, without any need to go through a new programming
language such as AspectJ.

4) I had the impression they were introducing many ad hoc concepts to
solve specific problems, whereas a general purpose solution such as
a metaclass would have solved everything in a much clearer and customizable
way for the final user.

Of course, I only have read one paper and I could well be wrong. 
My position (due the reading of that only one paper, could change
in the future) is that the problems AOP is trying to address are 
important; nevertheless, that paper did not convince me that the AOP 
solution was the right solution.

There is nom doubt that metaclasses are the right solution <0.5 wink>


                                      Michele