Please hear my plea: print without softspace

[Robin Becker]

In article <slrnc41i7e.81f.npat at localhost.localdomain>, Nick Patavalis
<npat at efault.net> writes
>In article <edc2QLAGMJQAFwoM at jessikat.fsnet.co.uk>, Robin Becker wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> ##############
>> class hidesoftspace:
>>     def __init__(self,fobj):
>>         self.__dict__['_fobj'] = fobj
>>         fobj.softspace = False
>>     def __getattr__(self,a):
>>         if a=='softspace': return False
>>         return getattr(self._fobj,a)
>>     def __setattr__(self,a,v):
>>         if a=='softspace': return
>>         setattr(self._fobj,a,v)
>> 
>> import sys
>> print 'before hiding',1,2,3,4
>> sys.stdout=hidesoftspace(sys.stdout)
>> print 'after  hiding',1,2,3,4
>> ##############
>


>Would you perhaps care to comment a bit more, or provide a pointer to
>some docs? It seems that there is a "softspace" atribute in the
>sys.stdout file object, and that this attribute gets set by the print
>statement itself. With your clever trick you make it imposible for
>someone to set this attribute to anything else but "False". What are
>the exact semantics behind this?
>

>I tried this:
>
>  import sys
>  print sys.stdout.softspace
>  0
>  print "test:", 1, 2, 3, sys.stdout.softspace
>  test: 1 2 3 1
>  print sys.stdout.softspace
>  0
>
>Which seems to support my explanation, but what exactly are the
>semantics of "softspace"?
>
>Thanks
>/npat
>
>

OK I'll try. I believe softspace is a boolean attribute of the standard
file class which is used by print to indicate that a space should be
inserted in the stream before the next item. Logically it should always
be false at the beginning of a print sequence and true after the print
of an item.

You have to be careful testing this as prints at the prompt don't behave
properly ie you always get a linefeed in the command terminal.

try
from sys import stdout
print stdout.softspace,stdout.softspace,;print stdout.softspace

should give

0 1 1

my class just ensures that a wrapped (warped :)) file will never have
its softspace set to true and thus we won't get the extra spaces; in
short print always thinks the wrapped file is at the start of a print
sequence.
-softspaced in the head-ly yrs- 
Robin Becker