general class functions

[syd]

> Instead of
>    return self.__dict__[name]
> you need
>    raise AttributeError, name

Booyah, Kent!  This works.  For posterity, I'll dump a working code:

#!/usr/bin/python
class Library(object):
  def __init__(self,list=None):
    self.list=list
  def __getattr__(self,name):
    if name.startswith("get_"):
      attrname = name[4:]
      def filter(value):
        library=Library()
        for nation in self.list:
          if getattr(nation,attrname) == value:
            library.add(nation)
        return library
      return filter
    else:
      raise AttributeError,name
  def add(self,nation):
    try: self.list.append(nation)
    except: self.list=[nation]
  def defineNation(self,name,continent,size):
    nation=Library.Nation()
    nation.name=name
    nation.continent=continent
    nation.size=size
    self.add(nation)
  def getNameList(self):
    outList=[]
    for nation in self.list:
      outList.append(nation.name)
    return outList
  class Nation(object):
    def __init__(self,name=None,continent=None,size=None):
      self.name=name # eg, Spain
      self.continent=continent # eg, Europe
      self.size=size # eg, medium

library=Library()
library.defineNation('Spain','Europe','medium')
library.defineNation('USA','NorthAmerica','large')
library.defineNation('Luxembourg','Europe','small')
library.defineNation('Portugal','Europe','medium')

print library.getNameList()
print library.get_continent('Europe').getNameList()