finding name of instances created

[Steven Bethard]

André wrote:
> Using the method suggested by Steven Bethard, I *almost* got it working
> the way I would like.
> Here's my program:
> ===
> .class PrivateClass(object):
> .    dict = {}
> .    def not_so_simple_method(self):
> .        for name in PrivateClass.dict.keys():
> .            if PrivateClass.dict[name] == self:
> .                print "instance " + name + " called not so simple"
> .    apparently_simple_method = not_so_simple_method
> 
> .    def __init__(self):
> .        print "instance created"
> .        for name, value in globals().iteritems():
> .            if isinstance(value, PrivateClass):
> .                PrivateClass.dict[name] = value
> 
> .def public_class():
> .    return PrivateClass()
> 
> .print "=== start==="
> .alpha = public_class()
> .print "created alpha"
> .print PrivateClass.dict
> .print "### alpha is not there\n"
> 
> .beta = public_class()
> .print "created beta"
> .print PrivateClass.dict
> .print "### we are always one behind in the dict content\n"
> 
> .alpha.apparently_simple_method()
> .beta.apparently_simple_method()

It looks like you want PrivateClass.dict updated every time that 
globals() is updated.  You can just use globals directly instead:

py> class PrivateClass(object):
...     def __init__(self, globals):
...         self.globals = globals
...     def apparently_simple_method(self):
...         for name, value in self.globals.iteritems():
...             if value is self:
...                 print "instance %s called not so simple" % name
...
py> def public_class():
...     return PrivateClass(globals())
...
py> alpha = public_class()
py> alpha.apparently_simple_method()
instance alpha called not so simple
py> beta = public_class()
py> beta.apparently_simple_method()
instance beta called not so simple

On the other hand, the iteration in 
PrivateClass.apparently_simple_method has a very bad code smell...

Steve