Why no list heritable type?

[Steve Holden]

James Stroud wrote:

> The thread "why not arrays" got me thinking. I would really like to inherit 
> from a list so that I can add methods based on its contents, say if I filled 
> it with a type of object and wanted to iterate over all objects. I have built 
> a wrapper around a list like this for general use:
> 
> class list_of_objects:
>   def __init__(self):
>     self.data = []
>   def __len__(self):
>     return len(self.data)
>   etc ...
> 
> Then it can be heritable and I can add or override methods. Why aren't built 
> in lists and dictionaries real heritable types that can save this kind of 
> patchwork? Is there a pythonic reason I am missing here?
> 

I think the thing you are really missing is the fact that list and the 
other built-in types can be used as the basis for inheritance:

Python 2.4 (#1, Dec  4 2004, 20:10:33)
[GCC 3.3.3 (cygwin special)] on cygwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
  >>> class fooList(list):
  ...   def bar(self):
  ...     for item in self:
  ...       print "Bar:", item
  ...
  >>> fl = fooList(('one', 'two', 'three'))
  >>> fl.append("four")
  >>> fl.bar()
Bar: one
Bar: two
Bar: three
Bar: four
  >>> type(fl)
<class '__main__.fooList'>
  >>>

You do need to be somewhat careful, though, to understand the 
initialisation mechanism of the new object-based types if you are going 
to get the best out of them.

regards
  Steve
-- 
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