accessing a classes code

[Ryan Krauss]

I have a set of Python classes that represent elements in a structural
model for vibration modeling (sort of like FEA).  Some of the
parameters of the model are initially unknown and I do some system
identification to determine the parameters.  After I determine these
unknown parameters, I would like to substitute them back into the
model and save the model as a new python class.  To do this, I think
each element needs to be able to read in the code for its __init__
method, make the substitutions and then write the new __init__ method
to a file defining a new class with the now known parameters.

Is there a way for a Python instance to access its own code
(especially the __init__ method)?  And if there is, is there a clean
way to write the modified code back to a file?   I assume that if I
can get the code as a list of strings, I can output it to a file
easily enough.

I am tempted to just read in the code and write a little Python script
to parse it to get me the __init__ methods, but that seems like
reinventing the wheel.

Thanks,

Ryan