decorating container types (Python 2.4)

[James Stroud]

I was thinking that only one longmeta is really needed and its not 
necessary to make a new metaclass at each go:

from types import MethodType

class longmeta(type):
   def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):
     if len(args) == 2:
       newcls = type.__new__(cls, args[1], (), {})
       len_func = args[0].__len__.im_func
       newcls.len_dlgt = MethodType(len_func, newcls, cls)
       return newcls
     else:
       return type.__new__(cls, *args, **kwargs)
   def __len__(cls):
     return cls.len_dlgt()


E.g.:

py> from types import MethodType
py>
py> class longmeta(type):
...   def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):
...     if len(args) == 2:
...       newcls = type.__new__(cls, args[1], (), {})
...       len_func = args[0].__len__.im_func
...       newcls.len_dlgt = MethodType(len_func, newcls, cls)
...       return newcls
...     else:
...       return type.__new__(cls, *args, **kwargs)
...   def __len__(cls):
...     return cls.len_dlgt()
...
py> class A(object):
...   value = 5
...   def __len__(self):
...     return A.value
...
py> a = A()
py> len(a)
5
py> B = longmeta(A, 'B')
py> len(B)
5
py> A.value = 16
py> len(B)
16
py> class C(B): pass
...
py> len(C)
16
py> A.value = 42
py> len(C)
42

James

-- 
James Stroud
UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics
Box 951570
Los Angeles, CA  90095

http://www.jamesstroud.com