Possible to create a read-only complex object?

[geremy condra]

On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 3:45 AM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve-REMOVE-THIS at cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:56:34 -0400, Terry Reedy wrote:
>
>> On 7/11/2010 12:51 PM, python at bdurham.com wrote:
>>> I have a complex object with attributes that contain lists, sets,
>>> dictionaries, and other objects. The lists and dictionaries may
>>> themselves contain complex objects.
>>> I would like to provide a read-only version of this type of object for
>>> other developers to query for reporting. Is there a way to prevent
>>> other developers from changing the attributes of my complex and nested
>>> object?
>>> In researching this question, I have identified __setattr__ and
>>> __delattr__ as possible ways to prevent changes to simple attributes,
>>> but I don't believe these magic methods will prevent others from
>>> fiddling with attributes containing lists and dictionaries or the
>>> contents of these lists and dictionaries.
>>
>> Python was not really not developed for multi-developer projects whose
>> members are willing to stomp on each others objects.
>
> I like the idea of competition-driven development, where the code that
> survives best in the face of hostile developers gets used.

You jest, but I've actually done this. The goal was to test security
awareness among developers- we formed two tiger teams, one to develop
code and one to exploit it, and had one member of the developer group
as a saboteur. His goal was to put in the largest possible
vulnerability without getting caught, while the others wanted to
produce the most secure code they could that met spec.

Geremy Condra