Problem Inheriting from "str" Class

[bcwhite at pobox.com]

I'm writing a program and want to create a class that is derived from
the "str" base type.  When I do so, however, I have problems with the
__init__ method.  When I run the code below, it will call my new
__init__ method when there is zero or one (value) parameter.  However,
if I try to pass two parameters or a named parameter, then it dies
with an error indicating that it's actually trying to call the
"str:__init__" method instead.

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!


$ python -d
Python 2.5 (r25:51908, Mar 13 2007, 08:13:14)
[GCC 3.4.4 (cygming special, gdc 0.12, using dmd 0.125)] on cygwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.


$ ./problem.py
xstr:__init__: None None None
xstr:__init__: test None None
E
======================================================================
ERROR: test_init (__main__.XStringTest)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./problem.py", line 22, in test_init
    self.assertEquals('test', xstr('test', 'test:'))
TypeError: str() takes at most 1 argument (2 given)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 1 test in 0.003s

FAILED (errors=1)


#! /usr/bin/python -t
###############################################################################

class xstr(str):

    def __init__(self, value=None, xlate=None, xpart=None):
        print 'xstr:__init__:',value,xlate,xpart
        self.xlate = xlate
        self.xpart = xpart
        str.__init__(self, value)

###############################################################################

import unittest
from test import test_support

class XStringTest(unittest.TestCase):

    def test_init(self):
        self.assertEquals('', xstr())
        self.assertEquals('test', xstr('test'))
        self.assertEquals('test', xstr('test', 'test:'))
        self.assertEquals('', xstr(xlate='test:'))

###############################################################################

if __name__ == '__main__':
    unittest.main()