[Tutor] call a def/class by reference

[DS]

Danny Yoo wrote:

>  
>
>>Thanks for answering my question.  What I'm hoping to avoid is an
>>explicit reference to any of the called functions within the program.
>>By doing it that way, it would avoid a maintenance problem of having to
>>remember to put a reference for every new function in the calling
>>program.
>>    
>>
>
>
>In your list of requirements:
>
>  
>
>>   1.  gettting the input that consists of a function and its
>>       parameters,
>>   2.  determining if the function is on an approved function list,
>>   3.  executing the function
>>   4.  rinse, repeat.
>>    
>>
>
>the second one is probably the one that needs clarifying.
>
>How do you know which functions should be callable? Adam's approach to
>expressing that knowledge is to use a dictionary:
>
>    d = {"foo" : foo}
>
>And there are many other ways of doing this besides a hardcoded
>dictionary.
>
>Tell us more about what you mean for a function to be "approved", and we
>should be able to suggest practical ways to do what you want.
>
>
>  
>
As far as an "approved" function, what I was imagining was something along
the lines of importing modules where all functions are callable such as

approvedlist = dir(mymodule)

which would give a list of names and then going from there.