Adding method to class at run-time: bad style?

[Grant Edwards]

On 2009-04-07, Grant Edwards <invalid at invalid> wrote:
> On 2009-04-07, Scott David Daniels <Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org> wrote:
>> Grant Edwards wrote:
>>> I realize that technically all methods are added to classes at
>>> "run-time", but what I'm talking about is this:
> ...
>>
>>>    ClientForm.Control.__eq__ = controlEqual
>>>    ClientForm.Control.__ne__ = controlNotEqual
> ...
>
>> Well, a more standard approach would be:
>>      class FancyControl(ClientForm.Control):
>>          def __eq__(self, other):
>>              return (self.type == other.type
>>                  and self.name == other.name
>>                  and self.value == other.value
>>                  and self.disabled == other.disabled
>>                  and self.readonly == self.readonly)
>>
>>          def __ne__(self, other):
>>              return not self.__eq__(other)

I like that, except it doesn't work.  Objects instantiated from
sub-classes of ClientForm.Control break.  I get errors like
this:

   Traceback (most recent call last):
     File "./testit.py", line 141, in <module>
       f1 = getSocketForm(0)
     File "./testit.py", line 99, in getSocketForm
       return getForm("Socket",n)
     File "./testit.py", line 88, in getForm
       forms = ClientForm.ParseResponse(response,backwards_compat=False)
     File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/ClientForm.py", line 1057, in ParseResponse
       return _ParseFileEx(response, response.geturl(), *args, **kwds)[1:]
     File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/ClientForm.py", line 1128, in _ParseFileEx
       type, name, attrs, select_default=select_default, index=ii*10)
     File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/ClientForm.py", line 2843, in new_control
       control.add_to_form(self)
     File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/ClientForm.py", line 2016, in add_to_form
       Control.add_to_form(self, form)
   TypeError: unbound method add_to_form() must be called with FancyControl instance as first argument (got CheckboxControl instance instead)

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow! I want a WESSON OIL
                                  at               lease!!
                               visi.com